My sense is that slumps are periodic, or cyclical, rather than characteristic of most people’s careers. The trick is in knowing how and when to accelerate through the turn, right? (And also when to apply the brake.)

Everyone here has some great recommendations. I am far from a model of scholarly productivity, so I will not proffer my own advice. But I would like to second what Jonathan Rees said. Please do apply for a Fulbright and go someplace with a strong interest in American studies for a year.

My personal favorite is Eastern and Central Europe. There are strong American Studies Programs in the Czech, Slovak, Hungarian and Austrian Republics. The Austrian Fulbright has a well established visiting professorship at Graz University. The University of Debrecan (formerly KLTE) has a good American Studies program and its in a beautiful city in Eastern Hungary.

You could do a lot for graduate and undergraduate students who are studying American history at an advanced level, but in a different academic culture. It could set your research off in a fresh direction. And Jonathan is right, not enough Americanists take advantage of this opportunity.

I hope you feel better about your slump. I would say that you are, from the perspective of a junior colleague at least, wildly successful. Like the posters above, I am sure you will find something new and exciting!

Over time, I’ve heard from scientists and social scientists how natural they find the collaborative model (and from former undergraduates doing graduate work in sciences and social sciences, who tell me the same–and also seem in most cases to enjoy the group work). And it’s become a big part of my life. I have worked as co-author and co-editor, with folks senior to me, at a comparable stage, and much younger, on everything from very technical short articles to very big and sprawling books, and have found every one of these enterprises incredibly rewarding. My main hope for digital history, which tends naturally to collaborative enterprises, is that it will stimulate historians and history departments to make more space for enterprises not run by a single Deep Thinker.

For me, at least,the way out of the fly-bottle was to find someone to buzz and fly with.

Actually, I’d say that slump or no slump, but there’s nothing like getting out of the country for a while to give you some perspective.