Comments on: Women’s History Month wrap-up

By: Breana

Breana — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 17:06:57 +0000

I, too, mostly read and ruminated, popping in and out of the discussions. Would love to go back and read all a bit more thoroughly though. Perhaps when the semester is over? As a doc student in education (with a mere BA in history I really rounding out my own work/research with views on feminism, equality, etc. from other perspectives. So, even though I’m only an amateur historian, I really enjoyed the posts!

By: Jeremy Young

Jeremy Young — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 02:00:10 +0000

If you wanted to participate but didn’t, what could we have done to include you?

Graded papers for me so I’d have time to even read substantive posts, let alone write any myself. Grr.

By: Historiann

Historiann — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 00:11:26 +0000

Thank the goddess! Er, I mean the Patriarchal Vengeful Irrational Old Testament Hater God Who Is Definitely Fer Sure a Manly God. And who probably looks an awful lot like Lawrence Stone.

Bring it!

By: Notorious Ph.D.

Notorious Ph.D. — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 23:58:36 +0000

Well I, for one, am enormously relieved that we’ve gotten Women’s History Month out of the way, so we can get back to studying real history.

By: Knitting Clio

Knitting Clio — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 12:12:21 +0000

Overall, I think the discussions worked quite well. I suggest that next year as the final installment, you solicit contributions from various bloggers and then compose a carnival of replies.

By: Evie

Evie — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 04:24:24 +0000

I mostly read rather than posted, but found found all the discussions stimulating and thought-provoking as they developed across the different blogs. It would perhaps have focused some of the discussion/comments a bit more if each of you had taken on one of the main themes of the book (as you mention doing above in the form of an edited email discussion), but whether by planning or serendipity, it worked out well anyway.

My only other suggestion would be for a bit more notice in advance for the next one. I stumbled across the discussion during its first week and although I had read History Matters, it was at least a year ago and I didn’t feel confident enough in my memory of it to comment on some of the specific points raised.

A huge thanks to everyone involved – I learned a lot.

By: Digger

Digger — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 03:02:41 +0000

I truly enjoyed the discussions, and reading both the original posts and the responses, even those that seemed out of left field (how many of those were from folks like me, who are not specifically historians?). They all got me thinking. I’d hate to be excluded because I’m not an historian and/or because I hadn’t read the book ahead of time and/or because my schedule didn’t match a scheduled liveblogging. I also liked the non-liveblogged aspect, as it gave me time to think about things before posting (or to decide not to post).

Even though I’m not the book’s target audience, I did find much in there of interest. In fact, reading the book and the blog discussions have directly affected the questions I’m asking of data for one of my current projects.

I’m not even sure how I stumbled onto the discussion, but I’m glad I did. Thanks again to all.

By: Indyanna

Indyanna — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 18:18:24 +0000

No complaints whatsoever, it was great. The only thing rising even to a critique is that I initially thought you might have some method of linking the four blogs together at the thread level, so that one could follow all five weeks from the same familiar place. In one or more instances, unfamiliar technical protocols for commenting, under circumstances of limited time, might have dissuated a comment or two. But mostly, once my spring break ran out in the second week, it was a question of finding time to keep the reading moving along. So maybe just announcing the thing a bit farther in advance, to give people more time to get prepped. All in all, however, it was a great use of a dull month!

Oh, yeah; maybe get a national network contract and hire one of those NCAA guys with the hair weaves to blare out the pregame strategy and do halftime commentaries!

By: Susan

Susan — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 17:59:32 +0000

I think I liked the way you did it, rather than trying to smooth it out in advance. Each of you posted a slightly different response, which in turn generated a different reader response. It would have been fun to have scheduled one or two live blogging sessions, though.

I haven’t gone back to reread the whole thing, but I do think the conversation moved over time, which is good. And yes, there were some outlier comments, but that’s to be expected.