A New Frontier or Just a 240,000 mile cul de sac

I'm delighted to be published today in the on-line Academic Journal '49th Parallel'. You can read the article here and I would very much welcome any feedback on the piece.

49th Parallel Piece well on track

Having got my piece for the journal 49th Parallel through peer review, it has just come back from sub-editing and, again has survived largely intact - it seems my purple prose isn't too colourful for this particular journal.

The 240,000 mile cul de sac piece should feature in the Winter 2011/2012 issue once I've crossed the 't's, dotted the 'i's and answered half a dozen comments and queries. Given I spend my non-academic life editing other people's prose, it's weird to have my own under such firm but benevolent scrutiny.

Now, what actually is Chicago-style end-noting...?

Mixed feelings

Up until about 5pm, yesterday was a really good day. I'd written one lecture; sorted out some seminar notes; read some good stuff for the PhD; delivered a lecture that went down well and had a really interesting seminar with my first years looking at women in 19th century USA.

Then, before I left the lecture hall, I made the mistake of checking my emails only to find I'd been knocked back on not one but two funding applications. I've been planning a trip to the Truman and Eisenhower Presidential Libraries which I was looking at making next February. As a self-funded student, with a large mortgage and three kids, external funding is the only way that I can get to the key archives (all in the US) and so far, I've led a charmed life. Two applications in the first months of the PhD both led to travel grants and I even got some funding from a corporate client! Nearly two years down the line, any hope of corporate funding is remote at best, while the foundations in the US have less money and more applications to deal with. If ever there could be a really bad time to hit the peak period of research on a PhD, I seem to have found it!

The last couple of hours have been spent searching for other sources of funding - and there aren't many around that would wish to part with spondoolicks to enable me to chase down connections between Eisenhower and his key advisers on space.

No point getting maudlin though - I'll just keep plugging on.  

Still plugging away

Okay, it's an hour until I deliver my third lecture/second seminar of the term - today we're moving from the Civil War into Reconstruction - and so far, so good.

Work's picking up too on the PhD. I've been refocusing the research somewhat so that it's a lot less about Kennedy - a path well and truly trodden when it comes to space research - and a lot more about Eisenhower and how his reach towards new policy in a wholly new area built on experience and relationships that had proved successful for him already in his Presidency. The likes of Jim Killian and Jim Hagerty are my current heroes - policy influencers from slightly unexpected sources.  The diaries/memoirs of both have proved good sources to mine in the past few weeks.

There was good news too that a paper of mine - 'The Helping Hands to the Hidden Hand' - has been accepted by the Australian and New Zealand American Studies Association's biennial conference in Brisbane next July. All fantastic in theory, but I now need to get well north of £1500 together to get myself over there to present . The paper covers a significant chunk of my PhD chronology - so it will be great to get it both written and shared with other researchers.

With a return trip to Abilene planned for the New Year, it's good to have some goals to aim for over the next nine months.

240,000 Mile Cul De Sac article has survived peer review

I've been quiet on here recently as I've been trying to re-steer the PhD work down a slightly less trodden path - and getting up to speed on US history from 1850-1914 in preparation for teaching next term.

My lecture notes and seminar 'primary sources for discussion' are beginning to take shape....and the module outline is probably now publishable. Just lots and lots of reading of texts to do now to ensure I'm more on top of the subjects than the students.

In terms of the PhD, the focus is shifting ever more towards Eisenhower. Kennedy on space has been covered very well by  a number of writers (notably John Logsdon in the last year), but Ike's space policy is still not understood properly and is still seen as a a response to Sputnik.

I'm addressing that to a degree in a paper submitted to 49th Parallel. I had the peer review report back over the weekend and was delighted to learn that, subject to minor revisions, it has been accepted for publication - another good step forward on the road to academe.

The key criticism was that it was a bit too short and didn't go deeply enough into Ike's pre-Sputnik actions nor address head on his space policy differences with JFK. I'd chopped some of this out of an earlier draft...so can revisit it. I'll also be looking at some of the more recent writing on Ike (though there isn't a whole lot this century!) to explore the lines they take. I actually think I've got a killer opening - but need to back my supposition with evidence, so will be diving back into my Abilene documents to back my hunch.

Anyway, between the module preparation and the article submission, I know what I'm doing for the next six weeks.  

US History revamped in a month

I will be teaching a Level 1 undergraduate US History 1850-1989 course from September this year and am in the midst of revamping last year's module (pretty good, all made sense, but heavily reliant on one text).

I'm looking at bringing in David Reynold's Empire of Liberty and will probably use High Brogan's Penguin History as recommended reading alongside last year's title, Foner's Give me Liberty! 

The fun now is searching out a series of primary source materials to use as the basis for our seminar sessions - Civil War, Civil Rights, Camelot, The Great White Fleet, War from the Top, War from the Bottom, Star Wars, Indian Wars, Truman Doctrine, Sputnik, New Deal, Great Society, Great Depression, Watergate, Irangate, Doughboys, Wilsonian Peace, Progressives, Red Scares and Reds under the bed. Taylor to Reagan - there are an awful lot of possibilities to investigate.

I'm very open to suggestions of accessible documents that would be worthy of analysis and debate by primarily UK students taking their first steps as undergrads.

New issue of '49th Parallel' Out - my Taft review is featured

The Spring 2011 issue of 49th Parallel is now out  - you can find it here. It includes my review on The Political Principles of Robert a Taft.

Writing the review article was an interesting and challenging experience. I read all the time, but applying an academic frame of mind to what I was reading and coming up with a constructive critique that might make other readers consider the text was a new experience. I worry still as to whether I was fair and just - although the review will probably only be read by a very tiny number of people - and most of them won't care a jot about what I have to say!

Still, there's a much longer article for the same academic journal in peer review at the moment, and another review article to research - this time on Truman and Immigration. All part of the rich academic learning experience.