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<\/a><\/p>\nAnd that\u2019s when I point out that these are the circumstances under which historians produce the articles and books that the students will read that term. None will be perfect, I remind them, because every single one will be the best that someone was able to write given all their other responsibilities. There will be leads that authors were not able to chase given the time constraints of writing a book before tenure, for example, or archives they couldn\u2019t search for lack of money to get there. There will be awkward paragraphs because the author was dealing with a sick child the morning they wrote that particular part of that particular chapter, or a copy-edit that was missed because the author was grading thirty papers until midnight the night before.<\/p>\n
This exercise reminds my students that historians are human, with human fallibilities \u2013 and it strikes me that we could stand to remind ourselves of that from time to time.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m in the middle of a book project. I am acutely aware of everything I do not know \u2013 all the background I don\u2019t yet have, the context I still have to build, the research I have to complete. I know the books that are gathering dust in my office while I\u2019m away on a research trip and how long it will take to read them \u2013 and I know that when I do, a dozen more lines of inquiry will open up to me. I feel dwarfed by the scale of the work. I think about fall term hurtling toward me and I\u2019m reminded of all the articles I want to read to alter the syllabi for my classes, the new approach to assignments I want to try, the way I\u2019m going to alter my grading. I think of the dwindling weeks of summer and my service obligations once I return to school and it\u2019s hard not to feel anxiety, if not outright panic.<\/p>\n
But I\u2019ve been through this before. I know that it\u2019s normal. And I hope you know it\u2019s normal, too.<\/p>\n
We are none of us charged with creating the perfect manuscript \u2013 just the best one we can given the time, space, and energy given to us. That\u2019s what I teach my students; it\u2019s what we also need to teach ourselves.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Early in the term in all of my mid-level and upper-level history classes, I ask students what historians do. We make a list on a whiteboard, and the students get the big ideas up there: go to conferences, do research, write, and teach. I have them break those down. What goes into going to a conference? There are proposals and presentations to write, slides to create, funding to secure, travel to undertake. Similarly, we talk about everything that goes into…<\/p>\n