Category: Archives

LGBTQ Archives at the Schlesinger and the Sophia Smith

November 16, 2020

This essay was previously published in 2018 at the archives site, Beyond Citation, created by Eileen Clancy and Steven Brier, CUNY Graduate Center. Before we delve into the LGBTQ digital resources of the Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women at the Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and of the Sophia … More LGBTQ Archives at the Schlesinger and the Sophia Smith

Remembering a Campus Free Speech Fight

July 18, 2018

On June 10, 2018, Doug Bennet, a historian, political aide, assistant secretary in the State Department, former president of National Public Radio and—most importantly to me—president of Wesleyan University, died at the age of 79. It’s rare that you see someone bring such a rich background to the executive office of a liberal arts college, but after a … More Remembering a Campus Free Speech Fight

William Manchester and the Art of Popular History

January 30, 2016

This essay is adapted from a talk I was invited to give at the Wesleyan University Library on the occasion of historian William Manchester’s archive becoming officially open to the public. On June 1, 2004, when William Manchester died, I went to a shelf in my home where I keep some books from my late father’s … More William Manchester and the Art of Popular History

From the Electronic Archive: My Second Career at the Same University

January 7, 2016

This is a (slightly) shorter version of a presentation I gave eight years ago at the 2008 American Historical Association Conference in Washington, D.C. I wrote it at a time when I had come to terms with some professional challenges. Most immediately, my promotion to full professor gone horribly awry, and as I began to … More From the Electronic Archive: My Second Career at the Same University

Free Range Research

February 16, 2014

One of my talents as a researcher is also one of my flaws. I reach far beyond the main focus of a given project to try to raise new questions and make connections that all allow me to understand it better. This has seemed particularly important in my current project, in which the history of … More Free Range Research