I’ll add to this periodically. if you want to know something about me, leave a comment & if it’s appropriate I’ll answer it :~) or leave a comment anyway — if you like history enough to read history blogs, I probably want to know you.
- The internet lets you define & identify yourself in many ways. Here are some of my ways: idleThinK, flickr, del.icio.us, facebook, librarything, digg.
I’m writing a master’s thesis on an aspect of Malaysian social history in the 1920s and 30s concerning a ‘domestic slave’ traffic in women and girls between China, Hong Kong and the Straits Settlements, and British colonial inertia, inaction and (eventually) reluctant intervention in the whole thing. It forms a necessarily small part of a far more general & theoretical interest in subaltern and postcolonial history (note: not gender history). I am hoping for a PhD at some point. I’m doing a PhD
- The title of this website is taken from Marc Bloch’s The Historian’s Craft, which I read and loved and admire for its simple though profound reflections on historical methodology. His engagement with history and dedication to the refinement of his life’s ‘craft’ is what inspires & informs my own intellectual pursuits.
- Everyone should read Nietzsche.
Hi there, thank you for your always thoughtful blogging. What exactly is your research field? [edit] answer: #2
Hi,
I just happened upon your blog, which was listed at Progressivehistorians, and think it is one of the most creative (visually and intellectually) that I have ever seen. Even though you seemingly are spending a lot of time in class, reading and writing a formidable thesis; amazingly, you find time to create and maintain a dynamic blog site. My compliments.
The title of your site attracted me. The most formative intellectual experience I have had in my life was Marc Bloch’s “The Historians Craft.” Sooo, naturally when I saw “A Historian’s Craft” I pounced on it. However, I don’t see much Block in this site so far. I have been mostly perusing and I may not have hit the relevant spots.
My question: have you been influenced by Block and if so how so? [edit] answer #3
Also, I am surprised that you are reading Marx & Engels and Nietzsche in a Ph.D. program. I thought they were pretty much passé in academic circles these days. [edit] answer #4
thank you for stopping by! I haven’t written anything on Bloch directly (yet), but he’s implicit in all my historiographical inquiry & reflection.
your comment on marx, engels & nietzsche is rather odd! in a certain sense, all history is passé. and yet here we are, with a whole discipline dedicated to it. my interest in these thinkers is, you know, also historical
“your comment on marx, engels & nietzsche is rather odd”
I did not mean to imply that their ideas were passe. Rather, that I did not think that those ideas were being read and discussed in ernest in the classrooms at the major academic history schools (e.g. Johns Hopkins, Ivy leagues, etc.).
My experiece in graduate seminars at a very not major school with professors who graduated from those major schools was mocking Marx because he was so wrong as evidenced by the Soviet Union, and ‘Nietzsche who’?
Also, do you have any thoughts about Toynbee?
I’ve never read Toynbee himself, although he’s quite infamous for his ‘metaphysical bunk’ history.
I’m amazed that people who have never heard of Nietzsche and wantonly mock Marx are professors! If I am one day denied professorship I shall remember this story and weep.
Hello
Great book. I just want to say what a fantastic thing you are doing! Good luck!
G’night
I think I’d have to leave a program that mocked Marx et al. Great thinkers are not to be dismissed so lightly, even when you don’t agree with what others have done with their thoughts. I teach at a university, and when I go over Marxism (which I do all the time) I walk the students through the critique and when they are all nodding their head vigourously, agreeing with Marx and excited about his ideas, I drop the bomb: “It’s Marx. Karl, not Groucho.” Their horrified responses soon fade into an excited discussion of what he got right.
I discovered you through bookporn #19, and have added you to my ‘check these blogs daily’ list. Write on!
Hello there. Looking around on the wordpress site and found this… I also write a blog that I keep saying is going to be history related… But it often ends up being a catalogue of events that piss me off in the current world and things that make me laugh, with some history related stuff here and there. Your site if far, far, better than my own! Keep up the good work (Mmmm, so many pictures of beautiful stacks… And “bookporn” is a great term) and I’ll keep reading!
Hi!
I just wanted to say hello and let you know that I really enjoy your blog. I am a science student, with a newly discovered love of history. I was searching for blogs that could immerse me in the depth and breadth and meaning of history, and yours blew me away. Thank you!
Mocking Marx? I’ve heard people say that my school (UCLA) is the last of the Marxist history departments – are there really professors who haven’t heard of Nietzsche and mock Marx?
Hey, another aspiring historian here, your blog looks interesting. Thanks for the library views!
Dear Rachael Leow,
We here in the history department at the University of Rochester have a job open in East/South Asian history. Would this be of interest to you? If so, let me know how our search committee can best be in touch with you.
Thanks,
Robert Westbrook
Professor
Re: above. Wow.
Dude!
Professor Westbrook, thanks very much for the offer – I’m very honoured. Your colleague, Thomas Slaughter, has gotten in email contact with me, and I’ll cc the correspondence to you.