Back in form, Oct 2011

Gee, eight months since my last post here. In this period I’ve gotten a journal article accepted, written encyclopedia entries, completed three-plus dissertation chapters, presented two conference papers, and am now teaching, doing job and postdoc applications, and getting ready to finish my last two chapters. In addition to actual writing I’ve developed the analytical side of my project considerably since February, reading a lot of secondary literature and sharpening my thinking and my arguments quite a bit. All that is not yet reflected in the actual prose top the degree it ought to be; and making that happen is one of the main goals for this final phase of the writing process that is coming up.

I do miss posting here and plan to get back to it. I think the daily posts on CCC made a good progress monitoring system. My work habits since Feb. have still been productive but more irregular and haphazard. Of course I’ve been balancing dissertation work with other writing projects and other academic activities–which is much more the shape of a typical academic career and what I have to look forward to continuing to do if land a job. So my main goal for the next eleven weeks (until the end of the calendar year) is to work on balancing steady dissertation writing with all the other activities and commitments in my life and career.

In the next couple days I will dedicate posts to the general state of the dissertation with regard to narrative shape and arguments, and maybe also add posts about related things like teaching and job applications.

LHA paper done

Finished my conference paper for the Louisiana Historical Association meeting this March. This is a relief, since my conference papers are always a chore, it seems; a chore because they always involve distilling and condensing my detailed, verbose dissertation prose. Tucking all the fun stuff away in the footnotes is one way to get it done. Anyway, nice to have done that; now I can finish this book review, and get on to Chapter 4.

Various Chores

Still unable to get started on Chapter 4, because I have to finish my paper — really a condensation of Chapters 2 and 3 — for the Louisiana Historical Association, and then review American Uprising, the rather problematic book about the 1811 German Coast slave uprising. I expect to be done both of these things by the end of next week, and to have made some necessary notes in the meantime, so on Monday the 21st I should be ready to start on Chapter 4. Hopefully this will mean I can finish all or most of it before I head down to New Orleans on 3/13 for ten days of research and visits.

Presenting … Ch. 3?!?!

I think I’m finished Chapter 3. It took almost two months longer than I wanted it to, and is much, much longer than I expected: 41 pages (with 11 point Times and 1.5 line spacing), almost 16,000 words. And, although it’s hard to say right now, I think it’s pretty good. Definitely more of an accomplishment than my first two chapters.

I may have permitted myself just a bit too much in the way of rhetorical flourishes and dramatic devices as the chapter wound to a close, in summing up Laussat’s 1803 and especially in describing his emotions and personality. It does verge into melodrama and away from scholarly history in quite pronounced fashion. I think I will live with this for a day, and see tomorrow whether anything really needs to be toned down before I send this to my readers.

But in any case, it’s a good feeling to have finally wound my way through this long, twisting tunnel.

Taylor Branch

One thing I did manage to do during the last six weeks of general unproductivity was to read Parting the Waters, Taylor Branch’s wonderful first volume of his America in the King Years trilogy. I read the book slowly, enjoying every bit, and honestly it was as much a needed diversion from 1803 New Orleans as it was a learning exercise. I have an impression that Branch is taken pretty seriously by academic historians; more so than, say, Robert Caro or David McCullough, for instance. But not being a 20th century specialist, it’s hard to judge how important the King trilogy is from a scholarly perspective.

What reading Branch undoubtedly did do for me, in addition to teaching me an awful lot I never knew about the Civil Rights movement, was to remind me how important it is, no matter what one’s time period or type of history, to do work that matters; work whose relevance is not totally abstract or obscure; work whose meaning can be explained in a few sentences to an intelligent non-specialist. And another thing: it’s not just permissible to judiciously include a little passion, a little subjective emotion, in the course of a long narrative; it’s necessary, if you want to avoid falling into a dry-as-dust chronicler voice.

I do wish that Branch had done just a bit more of the social history of the movement. Again and again he makes the point that it was the rank-and-file, not the leaders, who really powered the movement; and the upswelling of fervor on the part of young black southerners around 1960 seems a fascinating story not fully explained; but the nature of the book, and the fact that it is continuously intertwined with a biography of King, always brings us back to a narrative of the leaders, their outlook, and their strategies.

It’s a whole new year of dissertating!

2010 ended with a burst of utter unproductivity on my part. Illness, the holidays, and general fatigue with the topic all played a part, and as it turned out I was unable to finish Chapter 3 before the year ended. I think I had dramatically underestimated just how much I had to fit into this chapter, and how much care would be needed in juggling it all! Then 2011 began with an amazing treat, a God Street Wine excursion on Jam Cruise, where I got to play 2 shows, watch dozens of others, and enjoy a weeklong, no-kids vacation with Lisa on a cruise ship surrounded by fans and musicians.

Returning to Princeton in a phase of unwelcome winterish weather, I first got caught up in the job search for American Revolution junior scholars, and then, slowly, returned to the world of Chapter 3 and the trials of Laussat.

I expect to finally finish the chapter tomorrow, although it may take an extra day of polishing before I’m ready to send it off to my advisers and readers. Looking it over I think it’s pretty good, definitely my best chapter yet, and the first one to be based on truly original research (the first two mainly synthesized historiography). It is also long; it will be over 14,000 words I think when finished.

I do have high hopes that Chapter 4 will be easier; one reason is that it will be based, at least in part, on the Omohundro paper I presented last June on The Dreamers. More thoughts on that as I get into it!

Still making progress

Well, okay, posting at Crescent City Confidential has dropped off to nothingness. But I am still writing a dissertation. At this point I’m about 6,500 words into chapter 3, and will definitely finish it this week.

Chapter 3 is underway

Well, I have neglected CCC for a couple weeks. I finished a draft of Chapter 2, and also polished up Chapter 1, about the end of last month. Now I am well into my note-taking and outlining for Chapter 3, on Laussat and the transfer of power in 1803. I should take today, Tuesday, and Wednesday to finish this (Still have to assemble notes from Laussat’s Memoirs and the HNOC papers, plus the Robertson volume and a couple other things) and start writing the chapter on Thursday the 11th. I also will be meeting with David Bell on Wednesday to discuss the question of what a Napoleonic Louisiana might have looked like; and going to see Caitlin Fitz’s McNeil paper on Friday about American impressions of Spanish colonial independence struggles and slave emancipation. Hoping to have Chapter 3 in the can before Thanksgiving.

Moving

Moving, for me, never fails to be a disruptive, unsettling experience. We moved in to our new house the weekend of the 1st and 2nd, but it has pretty much interrupted my dissertation work for 10 days, until today. Unpacking things from boxes; cleaning; arranging furniture; putting stuff in storage; buying new things. It all takes time and all has to be done in consultation with Lisa. So I basically lost a week.

Today I got back on track with over 1,000 words and a good plan, finally, for how to arrange this second chapter. Schedule to revised soon, but I think I can catch up in the next week or so.

Weekly Log, 9-27-10 to 9-30-10

A tough week. It started out slowly, I just this feeling that things weren’t coming out right, that my outline had everything in the wrong order, etc etc. Eventually I solved the outline problem and got into a writing groove. But I didn’t come close to achieving my goal for this week, which was to finish my overview or “social geography” of 1803 New Orleans.

The problem wasn’t not writing; the problem was that, as always, I wrote more than I had intended to. It’s clear now that this overview of 1803 new orleans will have to be its own chapter and not the first section of Chapter 2 as originally planned. One thing I realized is that I have to analyze and explain as well as simply describe; in particular, for the section on New Orleans population and society, I have to explain my ideas as to the shape of late colonial New Orleans society, and in particular the nature of the creole/old regime elite that will play such a key part in my story as it evolves.

So, I think I am in good shape now. Next week I may finish a draft of what is now going to be a full chapter. But then i will need to go back and pad and embellish a bit in many places. I’ll also need to read a couple more books and work them in (Spear, Campanella, Tregle, among many others); the chapter so far relies on too small a base of secondary sources. First I must manage a better segue between geography/layout and population/society. then i must finish my sections on slaves and free people of color, and possibly move them in the structure. Then I must finish with Economy, Law, Government, and Political Mentalité (though I’ve done a bit on that last already.)

Maybe two more weeks to finish all this including embellishments and revisions. Then on to the narrative with Laussat. Two chapters. (I’ll have to condense it later if I do this as an LHA paper as I proposed.) I’ll revise my writing schedule soon.

Moving in to the new house tomorrow. Psyched to get back to this on Monday.