#41, February 1st, 2004

(historio)Graphical

Introduction

Time to start another strand in this blog.

I take book reviews pretty seriously. I often get them in to the review editors a little late (so I clearly don’t take them seriously enough), but when they do finally get sent off to the journal I generally have done my best to provide what I think is a reasonable overview of the text, as well as a clear sense of my take on it – my sense of how it fits within the historiography and whether or not I agree with the argument. I am probably not too different from other historians in this regard, though I sometimes believe that my readings are a little different from those of others – quirky, or something – for better or worse. It may be this belief in their quirkiness which prompts me to start including some of these book reviews here (after all Iam claiming that what I am doing in this blog is “something completely different”).

This section will not be devoted entirely to book reviews. Some other essays which relate to particular historiographical issues will also be incorporated here. Previously-posted essays, like “A State of Faith” (#36) and “Mario and the Magicians” (#23), might also have have been included in this section and provide a sense of some of the larger historiographical contributions I have been making beyond book reviews.

Some of the book reviews that will be posted here include: Linebaugh and Rediker’s The Many-Headed Hydra, Kwame Anthony Appiah’s In My Father’s House, Joe William Trotter’s edited volume The Great Migration in Historical Perspective, James Campbell’s Songs of Zion, among others. Many of these are already available in pdf format on my webpage, but this format is unwieldy, does not incorporate mind-altering color, and doesn’t allow for editorializing (which I think can be useful since many of these essays were written a while back and require some context).

Ere! Get on with it, Guv’nor.

© Rob Gregg, 2004