32nd History Carnival

Ladies and Gentleman, citizens of the internet, I present to you, the 32nd edition of the History Carnival. Unlike past hosts, I am not currently a practicing historian, (although I am a published historian) but I am very much interested in academic technology. And so I approached this rather extensive list (you can see the full list of nominations here ) with an eye towards posts that demonstrate exceptional use of the medium. The nominations represent the widest possible reach of historical writings and to give them their proper due, I’ve divided them up into a two part carnival, today’s piece will feature few distinctly academic pieces, a nod to collaborative learning and finally, posts that contribute to a community of best practices.

I’ll be back on Monday, June 5th with some wonderful found objects, several WWII era posts and a museum review or two.

Jonathan Dresner and Brian Ulrich both nominated Jews and Muslims in the Middle East posted at Brian’s Study Breaks and Jonathan Wilson and Sharon both nominated The colored expatriates of the American Revolution posted at Mode for Caleb. I will use both posts in future presentations to reluctant administrators to demonstrate that high quality, content driven research, writing and publishing can be done well in a blog format and that failure to recognize that reflects more poorly on the critic than it does on the growing body of literature.

When preaching to the converted, I’ll be sure to show off a post that Alan Baumler presented more on MIT and visualizing cultures posted at Frog In A Well ~ China,(Frog In A Well) and another that Sharon nominated, Subsidizing Public/State Education posted at crooked timber. Both comment threads define the type of collaborative learning community instructional designers dream of.

There were two complementary posts I would require any young graduate student to read, and would nudge any veteran of the archives to consider, Hacking the Archive posted at The Rhine River and Evan Roberts presents Amateur digitization for historians posted at coffee grounds.

I am not sure how I have gone most of my adult life without reading historical true crime stories, but now that I’ve been turned onto Laura James’s writing at CLEWS The Historic True Crime Blog, I may be catching up on my fill of human depravity. Several of Laura’s posts were nominated, and when reading through her archive, I thought I could nominate more. Rather than give you links to each of them, I encourage you to visit the site and pick your own favorite.

The bloggers at Holocaust Controversies also received several nominations for their series of posts, and rather than highlight one to the exclusion of others, I encourage you to begin with this post: Sergey Romanov presents Carlo Mattogno on Belzec Archaeological Research.

The term “best practices” has become the “out of the box” of the decade, especially in academic technology. I repeatedly reject the term “best” and replace it with “community of” because I think when it comes to talking about how we choose to do our jobs, we acknowledge there are differences and disagreements, that there is no best practice. The following posts each address that in different ways. Shot out of the canon posted at The Little Professor takes on teaching controversial subjects (make sure you follow up with the comments) while Life lessons at Kalamazoo posted at Quod She writes about being a faculty member with clear expectations, the kind of expectations for assessment that students appreciate in the classroom. Speaking of classrooms, I was thrilled to receive this next nomination. Miland Brown presents So Who Was Our First President? posted at American Presidents Blog. (The best practice connection in this one is subtle and those not familiar with collaborative learning might not have noticed the author’s strategic use of the bell, but for those in the know, this is code for “I’m one of them.”)

And to leave you on a light note, Jonathan Wilson spotted holyoffice: The Internet Theologian Explains The Da Vinci Code posted at The Medicine Box.

Thanks to everyone who nominated a post, congratulations to the authors and check back on Monday for Part II.

Of all the nominations, I found myself constantly surprised and amused by this esoteric collection of Found Objects and posts based on primary source material:

Penny L. Richards presents The hunchback boy in the Annual Report, 1912 posted at Disability Studies. Sharon presents Theatrum Mortis posted at Giornale Nuovo. Natalie Bennett presents Early Modern Advertising Again (or how not to write a Girls School Prospectus) posted at Roy Booth.

I never even noticed one, but after Jonathan Dresner nominated Didn’t you ever wonder about those tombstones shaped like trees? posted at 100 Word Minimum, I saw my first one at a graveyard in North Adams, Massachusetts.
Ahistoricality presents Old Money posted at Done With Mirrors. Sharon presents Early modern elephants posted at Ramage. Derek Andrews presents The Abbot’s Chair posted at The ToolRest. Natalie Bennett presents The last will and testament of Dame Helen Branch (1593) posted at Natalie Bennet. Nouri Lumendifi presents El-Arz posted at The Moor Next Door. Eugene Plawiuk presents Rebel Yell posted at LE REVUE GAUCHE – Left Analysis And Comment. S.J. Redman presents U-505 Featured on History Channel posted at Museum Madness. Natalie Bennett presents Evening VIII. On the Fallaciousness of History posted at Winter Evenings.

And while there are many more nominations (see the whole list here) I will leave you with two posts on World War II era topics, Jonathan Wilson nominated The “Hindsight” Theory of the Japanese American Internment Takes (Yet) Another Hit. posted at Is That Legal? and Stalin’s Ethnic Cleansing of the Crimean Tatars: 18 May 1944 posted at Otto’s Random Thoughts.

Submit your blog article to the next edition of history carnival using the carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on the blog carnival index page.