Monday, July 23, 2012

Signing off


Dear readers,

Over 5 ½ years ago, I began the Legal History Blog at my kitchen table. Over 5000 posts (collectively) and well over 1 million visits later, I am now signing off. The blog will continue, and as with all on-line ventures, its future depends in part on you. From the beginning, what has kept the blog going is its readership.

I began the Legal History Blog in part because I thought that the field needed more of an on-line presence than it had at the time. As colleagues joined me, first as guests and then as on-going bloggers, LHB has achieved the goals I had at the beginning. I continue to think that bringing the work of legal historians to an on-line readership is essential. I am moving on nonetheless because the blog can continue in one form or another without me, and because – with a new position and new program to launch – it is time for me to create something new.

For now, you can find me on occasion at Balkinization, and also at War Time. Whether my new project will lead to a blog or some other online form I don’t yet know. A while ago I blogged about the relationship between intellectual work and work in the garden. A garden is more than a respite from work, or a place where ideas find themselves. It is also an apt metaphor for my current state, especially as I wander around my very new garden in Atlanta. Sometimes in the garden you simply have to wait quietly, and see what will grow.