Saturday, March 28, 2009

Blogging the OAH: Day Two



Yesterday's sessions of the Organization of American Historians were once again overflowing with presentations of interest to legal historians, including a panel on "Guilt, Amnesty, and Pardon after the Civil War," and a very practical session on "History Online: Resources Available from the Federal Government." There are even more than you think, only exacerbating the (or at least this!) historian's terror of finding too many sources.

The OAH also sponsored a novel session format that focused on the work-in-progress of a senior scholar. Gary Gerstle (Vanderbilt) precirculated two chapters of an upcoming book on the state and democracy in the "long" nineteenth century. Alice Kessler-Harris (Columbia), Robin Einhorn (Berkeley), and Meg Jacobs (MIT) offered comments, and the conversation was lively, contentious, and promised a compelling book for U.S. political and legal historians to read when it comes out.

More to come ...