Zotero: an indispensable and free tool for historians and writers

I can't explain why, but I have neglected to post an item about Zotero before, and that was a massive oversight on my part. If you've ever found a book that might be useful for a research paper or project of any kind and wished you could have kept all the publication information but didn't remember the correct citation form, this is the program for you. And did I mention that it's free?


Zotero was created by historians to be used by historians, but it's also wonderful for anyone writing a paper in any discipline. It can be used to cite in MLA, AP, or Chicago Manual of Style (the style used by historians) or any number of other citation styles out there. So, if you were using one source for a history paper on slavery--say, a slave narrative--and wanted to use it for your English paper on writing styles, Zotero could insert a footnote and bibliography entry in MLA style for the English paper and Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS) for your history paper--all with only one keystroke of change.

Zotero is a bibliography software. Every time you find a book or article or other type of source, an icon appears at the top of your Mozilla Firefox. Click that icon and Zotero does all the heavy lifting for you: it instantaneously downloads all the necessary information about the source and keeps it for you--forever. You create an online account and, presto, wherever you are that has Firefox and a connection to the Internet has your bibliography. Here is a screenshot of the bibliography I'm building for my latest research project on movie violence:

Not one word of these entries did I type! Zotero did it all for me. And, as you can see on the left menu, I have a number of different lists within my Zotero bibliography. These are always available to me as long as I have a computer and an Internet connection.

There's also a portable version of Zotero that you can carry around on your flashdrive, if you wish. But I recommend the cloud account. More on Zotero in later posts. For now, go to zotero.org and download it to your Firefox. Then watch your source list grow!

A great resource on the Civil War

This blog post is for my HIS 100 and 328 students. I know it's early in the semester, and both classes are still in the colonial era right now, but I came across a marvelous resource on the New York Times website today. It's a slideshow/timeline of the Civil War.

The Times is now a subscription newspaper, but it allows up to ten article views free each month, so you should all be able to access this site several times. I urge you to do so: it's very cool:

New York Times Civil War timeline. Click here. 

The Perils of Secondary Source Research

John Marshall is one of the most famous Americans of all time. He was the third chief justice of the United States and is credited at having created the modern Supreme Court. He also had a nasty relationship with his distant cousin, Thomas Jefferson. Although their political rivalry is one of the best known stories, some of the vitriol attributed to Marshall about Jefferson actually accrued from a miscopied quotation.

In 1916, Albert Beveridge wrote what would become the definitive biography of John Marshall. For decades, it stood as the single most important work on the great chief justice. And for decades, its quotations were copied by later scholars. Too lazy to look up the original source of the quotation, they had no idea that they were perpetrating a writing error—over and over again.

The story goes like this: When Jefferson assumed the presidency, the nation was divided politically between the Federalists and the Democratic-Republicans. As you might remember, Marshall was  of the Federalist persuasion and Jefferson the leader of the new Democratic-Republicans. Writing about the new president, Marshall said, “The democrats [today we would capitalize that word] are divided into speculative theorists and absolute terrorists. With the latter, I am not disposed to class Mr. Jefferson.” Sounds relatively mild and reasonable, right?

Change one word in that quotation, though, and the meaning becomes diametrically opposite Marshall’s intention; indeed, it becomes downright vitriolic. Here’s how Beveridge misquoted Marshall: “The democrats are divided into speculative theorists and absolute terrorists. With the latter, I am disposed to class Mr. Jefferson.” Big historical oops.

The bigger oops, though, came from the generation of scholars who accepted Beveridge’s quotation without going to the original source to check for themselves. Marshall was, as Jean Edward Smith has pointed out, painted as far more conservative than he actually was.[1]

Don’t make the historical oops. Find the original source whenever you possibly can. 

---

[1] Jean Edward Smith, John Marshall: Definer of a Nation (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1996), 18.

The Chief Justice: too much power?

A fascinating post in today's online New York Times by Supreme Court expert Linda Greenhouse details all the work that the chief justice of the United States must do. In addition to worrying about whether this is too much work, the more important consideration must be is this too much power to vest in one man--one man (so far) who is appointed for life.

You can read the post here, and I strongly encourage you to do so. This represents an agglomeration of power within one individual that might have horrified the framers of the Constitution. What do you think?

Will we see more "long hot summers" soon?

My Roosevelt to Reagan and History of the American City students will recognize the phrase in quotation marks above--the "long hot summers": those dreadful and wrenching urban riots that tore apart hundreds of American cities between 1964 and 1968.

An interesting op-ed piece in today's New York Times (click here to read) suggests that American cities are not repeating those riots today even though the economy is dreadful because of policies of the first Obama administration. But those programs are now rapidly ending. According to Patrick Sharkey, a sociology professor at NYU, programs from the stimulus (remember that?) helped to destroy or rehabilitate abandoned buildings so they would not become crime spots, put teachers back into schools, and returned police to neighborhood streets. The problem, though, is that stimulus money has been spent.

And so Sharkey asks, "what comes next, now that the stimulus is over? A historical perspective on urban policy reveals a cycle in which periods of major investment are followed by periods of neglect, disinvestment and decline. This pattern is in the process of repeating."

Will American cities erupt in more "long hot summers"? 

"Messing With the Wrong City"

Dennis Lehane is the author of several fine urban historical novels. He is a native of Boston and still lives in Dorchester, the home of the eight-year-old killed in the Boston Marathon bombing. I strongly recommend his op-ed piece in the New York Times which you can find here.

I often tell students when I teach the American Revolution that the Boston Massacre was no massacre at all--five people killed. The name "massacre" was bestowed upon it by patriot propagandists in very short order, along with Paul Revere's incendiary and wildly inaccurate engraving of the massacre--something widely known to everyone who's gotten past second grade in this country.

Today, of course, we don't need the imaginations of illustrators and engravers. The cellphone cameras and videos captured the horrific details: more video footage to add to our grisly collective library of terrorist damage.

Do read Dennis Lehane's posting: it says much about Boston and its character.

Today my American urban history class begins its foray into urban renewal --its goals, its costs, and its results. What better way to showcase the old making way for the new than this shot of Albany's Empire State Plaza? The buildings in the foreground exemplify the late nineteenth century row house neighborhoods that were flattened to make way for the state government building complex. The architecture of the plaza exemplifies the modernist dreams of architects and planners of the mid twentieth century.

Shameless plug for a new book

Here is a shameless plug for a new book in which I have contributed a chapter. The book, Silencing Cinema, has just been shipped from Palgrave and is now available at an online bookstore near you....(as the old saying goes).

The book includes chapters on film censorship around the world, an area of censorship study that has been woefully neglected...until now! In it you'll find chapters by scholars the likes of which makes me blush to have been included--big names in the history of American film censorship like Gregory Black and Jon Lewis. The book looks at American censorship (of course) but also censorship in  China, Nigeria, Latin America, Italy, Brazil, Turkey, and Northern Europe. No other work has dealt with film censorship on such a broad geographical scale. My thanks to editors Daniel Biltereyst and Roel Vande Winkel for including my work on American governmental censorship in such a prestigious volume.

Click on the book above to go to Palgrave's site, or click here to go to Amazon.com to learn more.

Whatever happened to the phrase "there are"?

I'm sure I'm not the only one to have noticed this, although I don't hear anyone else railing about it...
But whatever happened to the phrase, "there are"?

Lately what I notice people saying--including professional broadcasters--is "there's" followed by something plural.

"There's lots of reasons for...."

"There's opinions on all sides..."

It's gotten so ubiquitous that I don't think people hear it anymore for what it is: illiterate speech. There: I've said it.

Would you ever dream of saying "There is opinions on all sides"? Of course not. But that's exactly what you are saying if you say "there's opinions on all sides."

So, my question for the day: what's wrong with "there are"?

Biased or just expressing a point of view?

In the last few years, I've noticed students becoming quite jaded about bias. Maybe it's because you've all grown up in the era of the 24-hour news cycle and its incessant need to be fed and the immense amounts of money to be made from advertising on said 24-hour news networks. Whatever the cause, many of you are so skeptical that you believe everything to be biased (and, yes, I did spell the word correctly just now--please note--bias is the noun and biased is the adjective).

Anyway, the word biased has a strongly negative connotation. It means something (or someone) so slanted in one way or another that it may lose veracity (or as Stephen Colbert would say, truthiness). But because someone writes or shoots something with a point of view in mind, does that necessarily make the outcome--the article, book, or movie--biased?

On the other hand, I am really glad to see that students are skeptical about the motives of the producers of information. That's good and healthy. One of the first things I do when I get an email forward about how my phone is going to explode or my gas tank will kill me, is to run it past Snopes.com. Those good folks do the work for us so we don't have to hunt down every unfounded rumor. That kind of skepticism is helpful.

So, keep up the good work. Be skeptical and be discriminating consumers of information, but don't let it make you so biased yourself that you believe nothing you see, hear, or read.

Resolutions for a new semester

I have an answer to C and D grades in your classes!

It's simple: pay attention. (stop rolling your eyes, because I can see you do that from the front of the room...more on the front of the room later)

I don't say this to sound flip: I mean it. It's just that simple.

Here's what I'm talking about. We're all bombarded every minute of the day with sounds and visuals grabbing for our attention--from advertisers on TV and websites to the music blasting through our iPods and the urgent need to get that latest update onto Facebook. Then there are the deadlines--constantly, endless, annoying deadlines--to pay this bill or to write that paper or to get 50% off.

So, when we get to class, we're all a bit distracted. But hear me out: if you let all that distracting stuff go when you walk through the door of that Earth Sciences or Humanities building, if you give yourself over totally to the professor and the subject, you can escape from all that distracting and annoying life stuff AND you can really learn more.

We professors know a lot more about being a student than you might realize. Think about it this way: who's spent more time in higher education than we have? Four years undergrad (like you), then two years for a master's degree, then another five years (at least) for a PhD. Actually, the national average to complete a PhD is longer. There's even an organization studying just how long it does take. But I digress...

If we know so much about being student, you ask, why do we make you jump through all these hoops to get a college degree? It's because we want you to learn. Not just facts--those can be looked up these days so easily--it's the "big picture" ideas that we want you to learn--things you can't look up on Google. And you can't contemplate or absorb the "big picture" of a subject if you're looking at your friend's Facebook page or sending an Instagram. You think you can, but you can't. There have been all sorts of studies done on multi-tasking and how well it works. The bottom line is that it doesn't.

So, want to get As and Bs in all your courses so you can impress your prospective employers or grad school admission officers? Then pay attention today. Better yet, sit in the front of the room. Studies have been done on that, and those students who do sit up front generally tend to focus more and do better (and if you need recommendation letters, we're more likely to know who you are if you're up there every day.)

Two more reasons to pay attention: (1) this course is costing a lot of money--either to your parents or to you so you might as well get the most out of it and (2) your GPA really does matter. It will follow you for the rest of your life. Say you decide ten years from now to go to grad school. There that GPA will be. Do you want it to read 2.4 or 3.4? It's a big difference.

One final reason: I've never heard anyone my age (don't ask) say, "gee, I wish I'd studied less in college." 

When did "lifestyle" replace the word "life"?

It's research paper and final exam grading time, so I will offer my latest musings on students' use of words. My first question is why do I so often read the word "lifestyle" when the more simple, and more correct word, "life" would be better?

Here's an example of what I'm seeing:

"Immigrants came from all over the world seeking a better lifestyle."

Why not:

"Immigrants came from all over the world seeking a better life." ?

The word "lifestyle" means a particular way of living--as in a bohemian lifestyle or a green lifestyle or a back-to-the-earth lifestyle.

Immigrants didn't come to America seeking a better lifestyle; they came seeking a better life.

Let's always remember to use simpler words whenever possible. That's what makes writing strong and effective.

Happy Evacuation Day!

Overshadowed by Thanksgiving these days, Evacuation Day (November 25) used to be a big deal for New Yorkers. This is the day that the British finally departed after a war-long occupation of New York City.

As they departed, the British offered today's version of a a rude gesture by hoisting the Union Jack and then greasing the flagpole so it could not retrieved. On their way out of the harbor, the sore losers saw that some intrepid Yank had managed to make his way up the flagpole (using spikes on his boots) to yank down the hated flag. Incensed at the American flag now waving in the breeze, one captain ordered his men to fire a round but it fell harmlessly into the water. The last shot of the war was truly a dud.

After the ships had left, General Washington and New York Governor Clinton repaired to a popular drinking hole called Fraunces Tavern and offered a series of thirteen toasts to the departed British including:

"May America be an Asylum to the Persecuted of 

       the Earth."

"May a close Union of the States guard the Temple

       they have erected to Liberty."

 "May the Remembrance of THIS DAY, be a Lesson to Princes."

(capitalization from the original  document.)

Evacuation Day was a major holiday every year in New York City until World War I when Americans needed to be nice to the Brits again (they were, after all, our allies against the Germans). It was such a big deal that Confederate spies planned to burn the city's major hotels and capture the treasury building on November 25, 1864, hoping the drunken revelry would cover the fires until they were full-blown blazes. (Somehow, they missed the big party and actually set the fires days later when they were easily discovered and the plot foiled.)

After World War I, Evacuation Day lost much of its rowdiness. Today, it's just a small commemoration in Battery Park. But, hey, we historians can celebrate it.

For more, see New York Archives magazine, Fall 2010 (pictured above) and a marvelous 2004 story at The New York Times.

Get lost in the past for a while.

If you find old photos fascinating, especially ones like this one taken at a place much in the news these days--Rockaway Beach--you must bookmark Shorpy.com.

This is a phenomenal resource for the urban historian, the late 19th century historian, the 20th century historian, and anyone else who likes to look into the past.

It's also an addictive website, so if you have five minutes to spare and want to poke around at the thousands of high-res historical photographs, you might find that an hour has gone by.

The site is searchable, although the search engine only looks for words in the title and the captions (which are frustratingly brief), but it's astonishing what you can find.

And all the photos enlarge to amazing size and detail. Click on the original and watch it balloon to proportions that allow you to feel as if you've walked onto the street right there from your desktop. You can do this, of course, from your smartphone, but save any real exploration for your computer screen--the photos are such high quality that you'll want to see them in all their full size. 

So, go look at Shorpy. com and get lost in the past for a while.