meo03

I applied too, for the U.S. South. One of the best, if not the best place to study it. So, we'll see..

The music that I see as indispensable: The Magnetic Fields Tom Waits The Hold Steady The Dismemberment Plan Yo la Tengo The Mountain Goats Silver Jews The Roots Why? Some stuff I've been really enjoying lately: Son Volt Drive-By Truckers older Wilco Magnolia Electric Company (I'm on a bit of an alt-country kick) Leonard Cohen MC Paul Barman Smog Tinariwen Tortoise Caribou Nick Cave Black Star So, I dabble, but tend to feel quite at home in 90s indie. When I am old, those will be my oldies, whether or not I have a radio station call them that.

Well, its fairly clear that the idea of a nation-state is a rather difficult one to define. It does seems to incorporate a discrete geographical area, with a discrete populous with a set, fairly well defined relationships to a government, and (perhaps) a set of cultural commonalities, particularly a uniting history and language. However, even the best examples of a homogeneous nation-state are just less stratified and diverse-- it's a matter of degree and not of kind, I think. Of course, any time a laundry list definition is put to the fore any concrete example will fail to live up to all of the tenants of the definition. Even the more ideal candidates-- someone said Iceland-- wouldn't be a "perfect" nation-state by the list I put forward. Just language is deeply problematic. Even in comfortable Western European countries, there are bitterly fought linguistic battles between the hegemony of cultural and political capitals, and the periphery. The UK and Spain are obvious examples, but France is a hodgepodge of regional languages-- including Basque and Celtic enclaves, as well as minor Romance languages and of course the Arabic minorities. It seems to me that it's important not to idealize the nation-state, and this is where I see professional history coming in and shaking things up. I think that it is interesting that the modern apparatus of History has sort of matured with modern nations and are largely supported by them-- both financially, and through archival and other records collections. And historians have both constructed and deconstructed national mythologies and master narratives, and help both consciously and unconsciously to shape national identity. I don't want to discount the work done by historians working in transnational, interregional, and global frameworks, on the contrary, I would like the vision and prescience that is needed for such a framework to be utilized by historians of more traditional (and I use that word unhappily) fields and methodologies.

I tend to agree with you here. Furthermore, I think it has obscured the fact that nation-states are a relatively recent, and European, construction. As long as we-- historians-- see living within nation-states as the norm, it will color how we come to know, and to write about those largely living outside that structure. That goes both for our times and for the historical period we write about. If we see as the development of nation-states as inevitable, or even as progressive, then it seems that our understanding as that nation-states are to be the expected cross-cultural norm, and the way in which functioning complex societies organize themselves. Part of what I see going into that is the fact that professional history, as well as the apparatus which has supported it (the archives, university systems, and funding) is largely connected to nation states, and to the perpetuation of national and institutional systems. I think that idea certainly bears itself out in the case of the United States, and one can at least see the influence of nation in the development of the academy in other nations, for reasons both material and ideological.

Well, to provide a counter example to some of y'all, I consider myself a political historian of the U.S. South, perhaps the most staid and well worn topic within American history. Also, I myself am Southern. Trying to sell oneself as a political historian period, takes some gall these days. Not being terribly interested in either quantitative analysis or electoral politics- but unwilling to call myself a social or cultural historian- I stick with politics because I am mostly interested in questions of power, and how power is maintained within systems of varying levels of identity and material codependency. I've had many professors remind me that political history has been out of fashion since the social turn of the sixties and the cultural/linguistic turns, ect. Granted, that is an over-simplistic telling of how the academy has developed, and many of the foundational works of Southern political history have been written in the past 20-25 years. As to my thoughts on the future of history.. I suppose if we are talking about the academy- and largely we are talking about the western academy- then my speculation is that professional history will- a) become increasingly more inclusive of what is considered source material, and what is "the archive." return, I hope, to a more activist role in shaping political discussion. c) I think that the rise of transnational history points to a future for history in a possible "post-national" political structure. Granted, that has been posited before, and here we are in the 21st century, still living in nation-states. d) while some point to quantitative methodologies gaining more and more prominence, I think that it's important to note that history has turned, and returned to quantitative or otherwise "scientific" historical methodology, most notably at the turn of the century, and then again in the 60s and 70s. If it happens again, it'll be same song, different verse. I hope we remain mindful (and I try to remind myself daily, through this process) that while professional history projects a sense of itself as everlasting; the inheritors of a tradition from Herodotus through Van Ranke on to today, in many ways- like any institution- has a myth of origin, is largely preoccupied with self perpetuation, and exists on a foundation that is both largely out of its own control can certainly be shaken. While humans will never stop interpreting the past, our fashion of doing so through the medium of academic history is fairly distinct, rarefied, and new. We'll see what happens. Then, later, we and our progeny will write about it.

I too found this forum after I finished the application process. Fortunately I've gotten a lot of advice from people who have been "in the game" for a while, and I hope that I have put together a good set of apps. We'll all find out in the next couple of months! The Details.. Field: antebellum U.S. South, particularly politics and identity in the borderlands. Undergrad: Florida State (2006) Major:History. Minor: Philosophy Post-Grad hodgepodge: DePaul University Numbers: Undergrad GPA: 3.4 (overall) 3.7 in history Post-Grad GPA: 4.0 (20 total hours comprised of graduate and undergraduate courses and independent study) GRE: V: 660 Q: 600 AW: 5.5 Extras: Teaching Experience, French speaker, Lived abroad for a couple years between Florida and Chicago, working part time at the Chicago History Museum Archives. Schools.. in order of wish and a prayer: Duke North Carolina Virginia Vanderbilt Emory WashU Georgia South Carolina (MA) Kentucky (MA) So, there you have it. Full disclosure-- this is my second attempt at the application process. I didn't get in anywhere when I applied in 06 as a senior at FSU, and it's not hard in retrospect (of course) to see why-- i put together a fairly amaturish application, from the writing sample right on through the statement of purpose. I feel I have done things the right way this time, we shall see what it warrants. Best of luck to everyone!

the Antebellum South, particularly the politics of the Upper States and the borderlands. I'm particularly interested in the interplay between economic and material forces and the development of local, state, and national identities. While I recognize that these multifaceted identities and cleavages exist at any place and time- I am particularly interested in the antebellum borderlands because it does so much to challenge the national narrative.