Skip to main content

I am drooling. Seriously.

I was perusing the interweb for some sort of guide to the good research pages, and I came across this. http://websearch.about.com/od/internetresearch/a/newsreference.htm

Then I came across this through that first site: http://www.ipl.org/IPLBrowse/GetSubject?vid=13&tid=6925&parent=0

I could lose myself researching. That's bad. So I need to chose a particular area for focus this summer and stick to it. Why am I researching? That should be obvious. I'm a historian in training. I need to know why. And I need to figure out why the why is the why. And how that why influenced this why. And what conclusions we can draw from all those whys. As George Santayana said, Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it”. And "The wisest mind has something yet to learn".

My choices are Modern Russia and the American Civil War era, since those are two of the classes I'm taking in the fall and I don't have time right now to pursue other interests. And I'm leaning toward the Civil War because I happen to have a book on it and I can't count the number of reenactments I've been to throughout the course of my life. My dad loves that period. Also WWI and WWII. He likes military strategy. He plays those extensive, fancy, comes-with-reams-of-instructions war games. He has no favorite side-he's Belgian.

So I have a resource in him. And he's got an entire bookcase filled with books written about the Civil War. So I didn't need opinions after all. I made the decision all by meself. But thanks for letting me write down the thinking process.


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Cat is Out of the Bag

I wonder where that expression comes from? There is this fabulous book that can tell you, only I forgot the name of it. Next time I come across it I think I'm going to have to buy it. Anyway. I was going to wait. A long time. Maybe forever. I don't like people coming up and hugging me, smiling and saying congratulations, or asking me questions. But Damm was talking to his recruiter about insurance. And he mentioned something that he should've told the recruiter was non-repeatable, because 5 minutes later the recruiter told Damm's mother (I have no earthly idea why he's talking to her-I keep forgetting to ask). After that I had to tell my mother. We haven't told any extended family members because there are quite a few here celebrating Damm's mother's graduation and that would be the worst form of torture I can imagine. So yeah, I'm knocked up again :P And this time I'm getting the t-shirt. "It" is due August 11. I have not been to a doc...

New Stuff

For those of you who are still following us I'd like to redirect you over to our new blog project, www.wordsremember.com . Damm and I have embarked on artistic and literary adventures and have even opened our own etsy shop which you can find here . Thanks!

There be too much history.

For the past couple of weeks Damm and I have been faithfully spending an hour each day working on our respective summer projects-he on his writing and me on Spanish and history. I had previously mentioned wanting to create some sort of series that I’d work on throughout the summer. I did a bit of brainstorming and decided that I should write essays on bits of fun and fascinating history. Then I started thinking up topic ideas and realized that I didn’t have enough time to randomly pick subjects, research them, and then write entertainingly. So I decided to pick one area of focus. It came down to either Modern Russia or the Civil War Era, since these are the two history courses I’ll be taking in the fall. I chose the Civil War. And even then I have not narrowed my focus enough. The essays one could write on the American Civil War … the possibilities are endless. And so I’m in the process of redefining what I will write/research. I’m in the midst of gathering info for a...