Apart from learning to study them, I have also produced an index. Indexing my own first book (The Dream of a Democratic Culture, Palgrave Macmillan, 2013) was an enjoyable and rewarding experience. That said, the task of indexing arose because I had no choice. My first-time academic work was published outside of an academic position, so I had no departmental or college-based subvention for editing or indexing. (This is yet another hidden resource hazard for contingent academic employees). My limited resources meant, after a conversation with my spouse, that I would invest in a thorough copy-editing job. Indexing, then, would Read more