Calling all history buffs...I need History Carnival entries!
Over the last 9 months, I've hosted a fair number of blog carnivals. Maybe not as many as that blog carnival afficianado Bora has hosted, but still a fair number for a blog that's less than a year old. I've hosted the the Skeptics' Circle not just once, but twice, in the process somehow inheriting the responsibility of coordinating it. I've also hosted Grand Rounds and Tangled Bank. In essence, I've hosted blog carnivals dedicated to nearly all the subjects that I like to blog about: medicine, science, and skepticism. There's only one of my major areas of interest that I haven't hosted a blog carnival about yet.
History.
Yes, as many of you know, I have an interest in history, particularly World War II history, and even more specifically Holocaust history. I've been into reading about World War II history since I was in grade school, and, as I grew my interests became more sophisticated than just being interested in the battles and the cool fighter aircraft that were used. Several years ago, I discovered online Holocaust denial, and a recurrent theme of this blog has been to write about the Holocaust and its denial. My pet peeve about people using overblown or fallacious Nazi/Hitler/Holocaust analogies even let me to create a certain creature that likes to eat the brains of activists, philosophers, and others, leading them to even greater heights of stupidity. Lately, I've become more interested in Civil War and World War I history. (American Brutus: John Wilkes Booth and the Lincoln Conspiracies by Michael W. Kauffman was the last book I read before the sixth Harry Potter book came out.)
Now it's time for me to indulge my interest in history a bit and complete my hosting of every blog carnival that I regularly peruse. I'm scheduled to host the next edition of the History Carnival on September 15.
Unlike the other blog carnivals I've hosted, I approach this one with a little bit of trepidation. There are two reasons for this. First, I have no formal training in history other than some courses in college and am not a historian. The History Carnival is one of the more highbrow, erudite blog carnivals out there, and now, after having volunteered to host, I'm mildly worried. The level of historical writing of some of the posts tends to be scholarly to the point that I'm not sure whether I'll be able to evaluate or introduce all of the articles properly. Of course, I could overdo it and go off the deep end with the wild creativity angle, as I did for Tangled Bank, but I don't think that something that wild would work for the History Carnival. (On the other hand, it could make the whole affair more entertaining; stay tuned.) Second, I've only received a couple of entries so far. Yes, I know there's almost a week to go until the deadline, but if I don't get more submissions soon, as St. Nate threatened to do when it was his turn to host the History Carnival, I'm going to prowl the blogosphere, hunting down articles vigilante-style to use for my own nefarious purposes. You don't want that from me anymore than you did from Nate. It won't be pretty if I end up having to take that approach.
So send those entries to me, Orac at my spiffy new Gmail address oracknows@gmail.com (thanks to the reader who sent me an invitation), by 9 PM EDST on Wednesday, September 14, and then join me for the History Carnival the next day. As always, any history-related blog entry is welcome. I particularly encourage entries about World War II and/or the Holocaust, but also hope someone will send me something that helps me understand areas of history that I know very little about, such as African or Asian history. Finally, given that we've just suffered one of the worst natural disasters (if not the worst) in the history of the United States, I would shocked if I didn't get at least a submission or two trying put Hurricane Katrina into historical perspective.
Get me the posts, and I'll try to put them into an entertaining and educational format for your edification!
History.
Yes, as many of you know, I have an interest in history, particularly World War II history, and even more specifically Holocaust history. I've been into reading about World War II history since I was in grade school, and, as I grew my interests became more sophisticated than just being interested in the battles and the cool fighter aircraft that were used. Several years ago, I discovered online Holocaust denial, and a recurrent theme of this blog has been to write about the Holocaust and its denial. My pet peeve about people using overblown or fallacious Nazi/Hitler/Holocaust analogies even let me to create a certain creature that likes to eat the brains of activists, philosophers, and others, leading them to even greater heights of stupidity. Lately, I've become more interested in Civil War and World War I history. (American Brutus: John Wilkes Booth and the Lincoln Conspiracies by Michael W. Kauffman was the last book I read before the sixth Harry Potter book came out.)
Now it's time for me to indulge my interest in history a bit and complete my hosting of every blog carnival that I regularly peruse. I'm scheduled to host the next edition of the History Carnival on September 15.
Unlike the other blog carnivals I've hosted, I approach this one with a little bit of trepidation. There are two reasons for this. First, I have no formal training in history other than some courses in college and am not a historian. The History Carnival is one of the more highbrow, erudite blog carnivals out there, and now, after having volunteered to host, I'm mildly worried. The level of historical writing of some of the posts tends to be scholarly to the point that I'm not sure whether I'll be able to evaluate or introduce all of the articles properly. Of course, I could overdo it and go off the deep end with the wild creativity angle, as I did for Tangled Bank, but I don't think that something that wild would work for the History Carnival. (On the other hand, it could make the whole affair more entertaining; stay tuned.) Second, I've only received a couple of entries so far. Yes, I know there's almost a week to go until the deadline, but if I don't get more submissions soon, as St. Nate threatened to do when it was his turn to host the History Carnival, I'm going to prowl the blogosphere, hunting down articles vigilante-style to use for my own nefarious purposes. You don't want that from me anymore than you did from Nate. It won't be pretty if I end up having to take that approach.
So send those entries to me, Orac at my spiffy new Gmail address oracknows@gmail.com (thanks to the reader who sent me an invitation), by 9 PM EDST on Wednesday, September 14, and then join me for the History Carnival the next day. As always, any history-related blog entry is welcome. I particularly encourage entries about World War II and/or the Holocaust, but also hope someone will send me something that helps me understand areas of history that I know very little about, such as African or Asian history. Finally, given that we've just suffered one of the worst natural disasters (if not the worst) in the history of the United States, I would shocked if I didn't get at least a submission or two trying put Hurricane Katrina into historical perspective.
Get me the posts, and I'll try to put them into an entertaining and educational format for your edification!
I'm going to prowl the blogosphere, hunting down articles vigilante-style to use for my own nefarious purposes. You don't want that from me...
ReplyDeleteActually, I prefer such Carnivals. Contributions are great, but seeing what content the host decides upon from their travels through the blogosphere is frequently even more interesting than any but the best of the posts submitted.
Hhhmmm... or mayby that's just my way of saying "I've got nothing..."
Nope.
I'm lookin' forward to this Carnival!
Did you hear about the homeopath who forgot to take his own medicine? He died of an overdose.
ReplyDeleteFrom todays Guardian, thought you may like it!
I still have the giant pink flamingo that I used for Grand Rounds. It seemed to do the job.
ReplyDeleteActually, what I did the day before GRL was to round up a half-dozen things from the 'net to hold in reserve, in case I did not get very many submissions. I did end up using some of them. My hope is that the victims may then be drawn into more active particiaption later.