Dear Readers: A few public service announcements that might be of interest to U.S. intellectual historians.
1) American Political Thought. A new journal from the University of Chicago Press. Thanks to Mike O’Connor for notifying me of this development. As Mike wrote to me: “The inaugural issue includes a roundtable on American Exceptionalism, featuring, among others, Rogers Smith. This issue also features reviews of books by Pauline Maier and John Patrick Diggins, and an article on Benjamin Franklin. It’s indexed on JSTOR, where they’ve put up a bit of free content (see the link above).”
2) Jacobin. As regular readers here know by now, I’m a tireless advocate of this upstart leftist journal of ideas. The latest issue is now out, and several of the articles can be read for free online. The issue is excellent. I am particularly impressed by articles by my Illinois State University colleague Curtis White, “The Philanthropic Complex,” and by the next great educational writer, Megan Erickson, “The Case for Cinderblocks.” Also be sure to read the excellent review of Jim Livingston’s Against Thrift by Tim Barker.
3) Routledge Handbook of Cosmopolitan Studies. (Shameless self promotion alert.) This large anthology is now published–it’s expensive, so you might recommend it to your institutional libraries. It includes my chapter, “Americans and Others: Historical Identity Formation in the United States.”
4) Ideas in History. This Nordic journal of intellectual history is issuing a CFP for a special theme issue on the history of economic ideas. Check it out: Since the 1980s, the economic landscape of the world has changed dramatically: globalisation, finanzialisation and deindustrialisation, rapid growth of global and national economic inequality, and repeated financial crises. Although the world has changed, intellectual historians have yet to seize the opportunity of offering historical in-depth understandings of the changes of global capitalism, then and now. This, we argue, should indeed be possible, and this special issue of Ideas in History calls for an economic turn’ of the discipline of intellectual history. We are interested in work that investigates the moral and cultural histories of economic rationalities and practice; work that traces the ways in which modern economic rationality became natural, and the ways in which it had to struggle (or collaborate) with religious and scientific authorities in order to gain legitimacy. Studies might concern various economic topics and practices, such as finance, poverty, markets, the state, regulation debates, statistics, money, insurance, etc., but it should investigate these from a perspective and/or methodology that can clearly be identified as affiliated with the discipline of intellectual history. Indeed, economic practices and rationalities offer great opportunities for being studied as representation, discourse, rhetoric, ideology, signs, symbols, etc., instead of merely being cold-hearted facts, graphs, figures, laws or objective truths that are not mediated through culture. Periodically, we are interested in the early modern period (with the rise of e.g. double-entry bookkeeping and of merchant capitalism in e.g. Venice), in the modern enlightenment period, and in the contemporary world. We are particularly interested in studies that investigate the moral and political controversies surrounding economic practices, and the role that religion and science, especially natural science, have played in these. Readings of work that deal with greater cultural and intellectual changes in the context of economic practices will be preferred over ‘great text’ readings. Reflections on whether the language of economics and economic values has today become a ‘master discourse’, stronger than both truth (science) and faith (religion) are highly welcome, as well as reflections on whether economic discourses are still haunted/supported by religious and/or scientific beliefs. Deadline for article submission is October 1st 2012.
Ideas in History is a double-blind peer reviewed journal. Pieces should generally be 8-12,000 words long. Pieces will be received by the journal editors. Upon approval by the editorial board, pieces will then be sent for blind peer review. Ideas in History uses the Chicago Manual of Style, 16th ed., author-date system for references. Ideas in History subscribes to the principle of global English; manuscripts may be submitted in any self-consistent national form of English as concerns spelling, grammar and syntax. For placement of quotation marks, spellings of dates, capitalization conventions, placement of references, page numbering conventions and the compilation of the reference list, authors are referred to the Chicago Manual. The reference list should be labeled “References”. Manuscripts should be submitted in Times New Roman 12. Footnotes, when necessary, should be used instead of endnotes and be formatted in Times New Roman 10. Manuscripts should be line spaced at either 1.5 or 2.0. Articles should be sent to Mikkel Thorup ([email protected]) or Christian Olaf Christiansen ([email protected]).
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While we’re on the topic of journals, let me draw folks’ attention to an interesting discussion going on over at Crooked Timber about Harvard Library’s attempt to encourage Harvard faculty to publish in open-access journals and to sever all ties with (including serving on editorial boards of) journals that are not open access.
The latest issue of Modern Intellectual History is also currently available free. That’s the one with the forum on American intellectual history that Dan Wickberg reviewed here a few weeks ago. If, like me, you don’t have access to MIH otherwise, now’s your chance to read the essays in the forum and see for yourself what all the fuss is about.
http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayIssue?jid=MIH&volumeId=9&seriesId=0&issueId=01
FYI: I put up a USIH notice about American Political Thought last October. – TL
Tim: I thought I remembered seeing this, but my cursory search turned up nothing. Oh, well, I doubt the good people at APT will mind us promoting them twice!