Now that the second book is safely out of my hands, I've been working for the last little while on some new things: perpetual motion machines (see this earlier post for a very preliminary version), Spanish ghosts in English-conquered Jamaica, scientific projectors in Restoration England, and so on. One of these, as previous posts might … Continue reading And now for something completely different
self-promotion
Writing the Second Book
Yesterday I submitted the first full manuscript of my second book to what I very much hope will be its publisher. (Note to editors: I love you. Please love me back!) As with the doctoral dissertation and the first book, submission felt impossibly distant at every moment up until the moment it happened. I'd say … Continue reading Writing the Second Book
I Shall Return, No, Really
I didn't intend to take such a long break from writing this blog. (Sorry if anyone was waiting around.) But I've been working through a book manuscript slowly but surely, but slowly, and working on a new course, and tidying up various other larger and smaller writing and reading commitments -- a couple of articles, … Continue reading I Shall Return, No, Really
Now in Paperback: The Oxford Handbook of Modern Irish History
Moderate self-promotion alert: I'm happy to say that the paperback edition of this book will be out early next month. My own very modest contribution is a chapter on Restoration Ireland (1660-1688). I'm grateful to the editor, Alvin Jackson, for inviting me to write it; having looked at this brief but decisive period of Irish history from … Continue reading Now in Paperback: The Oxford Handbook of Modern Irish History
The Dreaded Second Book
Forgive the self-indulgence of a post about my writing; but it's my birthday, and I'll cry if I want to. The hiatus in posts here began as a way of dealing with grading and continued as I shifted gears to the early summer "return to research" that begins in May and lasts... well, not long … Continue reading The Dreaded Second Book
Don’t Make Graduate Students Freak Out about Publishing
Sometimes the title tells you all you really need to know. But I did write a little more on this than just the one line, and the piece -- a draft of which I tried out here -- is now in the Chronicle of Higher Education, in the Chronicle Review. I'd like to thank the Chronicle editors for vastly improving … Continue reading Don’t Make Graduate Students Freak Out about Publishing
Happiness as a Colonial Science: new publication
In the wake of the Royal Society (London, 1660) and the Académie Royale (Paris, 1666), a slew of scientific societies formed in the later seventeenth-century European world, nodes in an expanding network of institutions devoted to experimental science, natural history, and kindred sorts of philosophical activity. A short-lived member of this scientific community was the … Continue reading Happiness as a Colonial Science: new publication
New Publication: Towards a History of Projects
In his 1697 Essay on Projects, Daniel Defoe referred to his era as a "Projecting Age": a time of schemes, plots and plans to make life (life in general, and the projector's life in particular) better. Many projects were what we would call scams, and many more looked that way. In a conservative and moralizing age, projects were … Continue reading New Publication: Towards a History of Projects
New publication: Alchemical transmutation and economic value in the seventeenth century
Self-promotion alert! (But if I don't tell you, who will?) I'm happy to say that a piece I wrote on two seventeenth-century scientific projectors, Gabriel Plattes (c.1600-44) and William Petty (1623-87), has at long last come out as a chapter in the large volume shown at left. My contribution looks at how Plattes and Petty … Continue reading New publication: Alchemical transmutation and economic value in the seventeenth century
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
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