Dear Friends:
I'd value your thoughts on the first electronic article for the American
Historical Review that Ed and I are writing. The article's direction has
changed in recent showings to colleagues. One of the most difficult issues
for historians is the concept of authorship and narrative--subjects that we
touched on briefly today in the seminar. Few historians would consider the
Valley project web site to be a "narrative" and instead consider it an
"archive." Many of our colleagues might consider this article a
compilation of evidence that offers no "story" or "narrative" direction.
We've moved in this direction on purpose--you'll see that we have not
"ordered" our findings--someone can enter our argument at various points
and move to evidence and historiography and then on to other findings
(arguments). The "Summary" will be an order narrative of the findings.
The "Narrative" is a story, traditionaly told with metaphorical language
and footnotes. Earlier versions of the article had no "Narrative" but
instead a set order to the findings. We've liberated the findings and
included a narrative and summary, in essence each a step of abstraction and
authorial direction.
The current draft is at:
http://lincoln.vcdh.virginia.edu/middle.html (click Article)
The frontpage will differ and include a yet to be finished Flash map of the
region. The summary section is a mess but nearly everything else is
stable--I'll be updating the summary soon.
There will also be a Commentary section on the same level as Historiography
and Evidence and it will include comments in our release version from Lloyd
Benson and others. The comments will also be able to be sorted and will
link to specific findings or historiography, when they finally work.
The old version for your reference is at:
www.vcdh.virginia.edu/AHR/article.html
It has a more linear argument built into the analysis and we've since
decided to cut loose from that and structure that section differently.
Thank you so much for looking at this.
I'd welcome your thoughts, comments, suggestions, and, if your inclined,
encouragement!
Best,
Will
William G. Thomas
Director
Virginia Center for Digital History
Alderman Library
University of Virginia
P. O. Box 400116
Charlottesville, VA 22904-4116
804-924-7834
www.vcdh.virginia.edu
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