One of the things I love about my blogmate L.D. is how deeply–and publicly–she reflects upon her place in the history discipline. Her most recent excellent post, The Reluctant Historian, where she discusses the necessity of approaching her subjects with “judicious sympathy,” is a case in point. Although I also enjoy reading scholarship written by the injudiciously unsympathetic–and although I agree with Corey Robin who wrote in the comments section that “contempt can actually press a writer, even inspire a writer, to see things in a subject that others have not seen”–I have found that it is to the benefit Read more