My grandfather was born in 1909: not old enough for the First World War and too old for the Second, he served in the US Navy between the two. He had, I think, about three or four years of elementary school before leaving to work; though I remember him as prone to quoting Scripture and Shakespeare and singing lines of … Continue reading Academic publishing and graduate students: Thought for the day
Author: Ted McCormick
Self-promotion/free advice alert: new book on Malthus
Buy this book! Well, buy it if you have US$100/£65/C$115 that's not destined for more pressing uses, like rent or food. Otherwise, look for it in a generously endowed academic library near you. It's full of new and interesting thoughts on Malthus, Malthusianism, population, geography, and more. And some of those thoughts are mine! This … Continue reading Self-promotion/free advice alert: new book on Malthus
The Ambivalent Alchemist’s Guide to History: Or, Why Gabriel Plattes Matters
"But if you look at the history, modern chemistry only starts coming in to replace alchemy around the same time capitalism really gets going. Strange, eh? What do you make of that?" Webb nodded agreeably. "Maybe capitalism decided it didn't need the old magic anymore." An emphasis whose contempt was not meant to escape Merle's … Continue reading The Ambivalent Alchemist’s Guide to History: Or, Why Gabriel Plattes Matters
Arguing for history: If not skills, then what?
The quiet, leafy corner of Twitter where I spend increasing amounts of my time exploded this morning with responses to the following statement: Society doesn't need a 21-year-old who is a sixth century historian. It needs a 21-year-old who really understands how to analyse things, understands the tenets of leadership and contributing to society, who … Continue reading Arguing for history: If not skills, then what?
Skills are not the answer: further thoughts on (not) selling history
[This continues an earlier post.] To pick up where I left off: Historians, history departments, and historical organizations are -- rightly -- worried about a decline in the study of history at the undergraduate level. There is no clear evidence for any one cause driving this decline, but a mixture of structural changes to the economy and … Continue reading Skills are not the answer: further thoughts on (not) selling history
Skills, Knowledge, and (Not) Selling History
Why study history? What can I do with a history degree? Why is the history major in decline? These three questions, or variations of them, seem to have been with us forever, or at least as long as I've been studying history (taking in college, that's about twenty years). They're the titles of campus workshops. They're … Continue reading Skills, Knowledge, and (Not) Selling History
The Great Alchemist Bragadini
[Update: My post scratches the surface, but there's a much more thorough and detailed exploration of Bragadini's earlier career here, for anyone interested.] Like magic, astrology, and other endeavours now found in the "occult" section (it's in the back, just follow the patchouli scent), alchemy can be hard for non-occultists to take seriously. On the other hand, early modern alchemy has … Continue reading The Great Alchemist Bragadini
Nothing fails like success
Academics love failure, kind of. I say this not only to avoid the stack of undergraduate papers I'm supposed to have graded already and the even larger stack of manuscript pages I'm supposed to have reviewed, but also as a reflection on the runaway success of Princeton psychology professor Johannes Haushofer's "CV of failures." This list … Continue reading Nothing fails like success
Whose Jargon? Or, All of us Creating Teamwork Inventing Opportunities Now
Earlier this month NPR ran a piece decrying academic "jargonitis." (What is "jargonitis", you ask? Well....) That in itself is hardly news. The jeremiad against academic language (jargon, theory, "academic writing" altogether) is a familiar extension of the ivory tower vs. real world dichotomy (sorry: idea that two things are different) that shapes so much media coverage of higher … Continue reading Whose Jargon? Or, All of us Creating Teamwork Inventing Opportunities Now
Return to Penis Island: Or, the surprising trajectories of early modern population thought (Part 3: Conclusion)
[Earlier episodes: Part 1; Part 2] As we’ve seen, there were a variety of lenses through which to read Neville’s novel, from travel account to political parable to biblical allegory to niche pornography. The Isle of Pines’s close attention to population registered differently depending on the lens. To readers who kept a weather eye on … Continue reading Return to Penis Island: Or, the surprising trajectories of early modern population thought (Part 3: Conclusion)
memorious 