by WMQ Editor Josh Piker At the risk of invoking one of my many least favorite Tom Cruise movies—or, as a quick Google search informs me, what looks to be a more recent (but even more uninspired) movie based on a video game—I’d like to talk for a minute about the need for speed. Last year, I blogged about my… Read More
WMQ author Justin Roberts reflects on the unexpected route that led him to the article on British plantation management in Barbados that appears in the April issue. by Justin Roberts As I was writing my first book about British Atlantic plantation management in the late eighteenth century, I found myself burrowing back further in time with my research questions. As I… Read More
by Josh Piker It will, I suspect, come as no surprise to hear that the relationship between authors and those scholars who serve as readers for article manuscripts is an ambivalent one. I try to recruit five readers’ reports for each essay that goes out for peer review. A not insignificant part of my job consists of finding ways… Read More
Fissiparous. Centrifugal. Pluralization. A-synthetic. Comes to find that when I blog about #vastearlyamerica, my inbox fills up with fifty-cent words. Each of those words captures potential consequences of the expansive nature of our field. Fragmentation, dispersal, diversity, scale, incoherence. I’ve been hearing a lot about these topics since “Getting Lost?” was posted a few months… Read More
In today’s post, WMQ author Susanah Shaw Romney (April 2016) answers the following: “WMQ articles are capped at 10,000 words (plus notes). If you had 5,000 more words to play with, how would the article be different?” by Susanah Shaw Romney This article started out as a paper I submitted to the WMQ-EMSI Workshop on Women in Early America. The paper I wrote then… Read More
In today’s post, WMQ author Miles P. Grier (January 2016) reflects on the editing process at the William and Mary Quarterly and how his background as a literary scholar affected that experience. I ain’t gonna play no second fiddle / Cause I’m used to playing lead —Perry Bradford by Miles P. Grier In a 2008 Forum, published simultaneously in… Read More
WMQ author (January 2016) Emma Hart looks at the difficulty of writing economic history. (She also kicks it off with a pretty good pun. How often does “offal” get to feature in jokes of any kind?) After two decades in the business, I realize that my historical interests are not the most popular preoccupations, even among specialists. I’m fascinated by… Read More
In today’s post, WMQ (January 2016) author Christopher Parsons reflects on how the editorial process he went through with the article pushed him to reframe his understanding of the key players in the story—including the leafy one. by Christopher Parsons I know more about ginseng than I ever thought that I would, and I suspect that many of my friends and family… Read More
Is the WMQ really in danger of “losing its way” as Gordon Wood says it is? Josh Piker looks at just what we mean when we talk about #VastEarlyAmerica and responds to that charge. Karin’s yearlong tour through #VastEarlyAmerica will be fascinating to follow, and I am very much looking forward to the conversations that ensue. With those dialogues and debates… Read More
ICYMI: In the October 2015 issue of Uncommon Sense, Josh Piker brought us some special math. How does 122 + 462 + 462 = 18? Find out how the WMQ answers that question. My daughter, Naima, is twelve and I can no longer help her with her math homework. Yes, she’s that good at the subject; and, yes, I’m… Read More
WMQ author Kirsten Fischer reflects on the process that brought her to write her forthcoming essay in the July 2016 issue of the Quarterly. Kirsten Fischer Ever searched for the glasses that are sitting on your nose? If that can happen when we’re looking for something we expect to find, it can be even harder to spot the… Read More
In today’s post, WMQ author Jeffrey Ostler reflects on what inspired his research and what questions he is still asking. I’m sure that most historians occasionally reflect on the paths that lead us to write the things we do. When I trace the path that led to the publication of “To Extirpate the Indians: An Indigenous Consciousness of Genocide in… Read More