Print and Electronic Books

Abstract

Historical research and scholarship form a matrix of specialties depending on the object studied and the period under examination. The history of science is examined for its particular characteristics as evidenced in the cumulative bibliographies published in Isis, a premier journal devoted to the history of science for 1986–2003. A bibliometric examination of publication trends and specializations are explored through the historical periodizations inherent in historical studies. The history of science conforms to a unique evolution and professional orientation among the various fields in professional and academic history.     

Interpreting Shared and Contested Histories: The Broken Links Exhibition

Abstract The exhibition Broken Links: Stolen Generations in Queensland focused on the history and impacts of the forced removal of Aboriginal children from their biological parents in Queensland, Australia between 1869 and 1969. This exhibition is discussed as a case study of “hot interpretation” (Ballantyne and Uzzell 1993), which incorporates emotion into the design of interpretive experiences in order to provoke cognitive and behavioral responses. Visitors’ responses to the exhibition are explored and issues regarding the use of “hot interpretation” techniques are discussed. Five principles are derived for the application of hot interpretive techniques in the context of shared and contested histories, with the aim of encouraging visitors to see their own history from a different perspective.     

Diversity and the Museum of London

Increasingly, some — but not all — urban history museums are facing the challenges of reaching out to and serving growingly diversified populations. Described here is the Museum of London's The Peopling of London, which recognizes the history and contributions of immigrant communities and their descendants. Planning for the exhibition required an about face from the museum's traditional in-house method of exhibition development — involving members of minority communities. Both the planning process and the resulting exhibition serve as a model for consideration and possibly emulation as urban history museums look at the growing diversification of the populations they serve.     

Statistics ofHistorical Abstracts andAmerica: History and Life databases

Historical Abstracts (HA) andAmerica: History and Life (AHL) are bibliography serials that cite the appearance of scholarly literature in history and also related fields such as political science, sociology, anthropology, and folklore, as they relate to history. Both titles first appeared as print publications,HA in 1955 andAHL in 1964. After the use of computers was incorporated into the production process, electronic files of the print volumes were made available as online databases,HA from volume 19, andAHL from volume 1. Both publications are now available on CD-ROM, along with other ABC-Clio reference titles:ARTBibliographies Modern, ABC-Pol Sci, theExegy current events database, andBibliography of North American Indians.     

One Hundred Strong: A Colloquium on Transforming Natural History Museums in the Twenty‐first Century

In February 2012, the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) convened 100 colleagues from 43 organizations to initiate a collaborative learning research agenda focused on examining important areas for innovation to better serve twenty‐first‐century audiences. The conference organizers anticipated that scientists, educators, exhibit professionals, and other members of the natural history community would identify and prioritize research questions about what, how, why, when, and where people learn about natural history. We prepared to engage in a conversation about how natural history museums could change what they do. The participants' overwhelming passion for their work, and for natural history museums and their transformative potential for society, quickly turned the conversation toward how natural history museums should change what they are. The result was an emergent learning research agenda situated within a broader vision for natural history museums.     

Personal Beliefs and National Stories: Theater in Museums as a Tool for Exploring Historical Memory

How does what we remember about history relate to true historical understanding, and how can the museum become a location for these conversations? During the summer of 2011, the National Museum of American History challenged audiences to consider issues of historical memory and national history through the performance of an interactive museum theater program, The Time Trial of John Brown. Using the Time Trial approach as a case study, this article reveals that interactive theater in museums can provide a platform from which audiences assert their own historical understanding while learning firsthand about their role in creating a shared knowledge of American history. As the role of museums evolves in the twenty‐first century, new attention must be paid to this personal process of examining and creating history and memory through performance. It is through performance and participation that history and memory are both examined and created by the audience.     

怎样讲好科学故事:赵致真和他的《播火录》

给大众讲述科学史,是进行科学传播、提高公民科学素质的重要方式。《播火录》是一部科学史的散文集,讲述了众多相对独立并兼具科学性和思想性的真实故事,真实再现了近代科学在发展过程中的生动片段。本文从作者的创作动机、创作经历切入,通过分析作品的特质,揭示了《播火录》的科学传播价值。     

More than Monsters: Dark Fantasy,the Mystery-Thriller and Horror's Heterogeneous History

This article critically examines the golden age radio mystery-thriller genre in order to rectify the history of the horror genre and contribute to the history of radio horror. An excavation of the mystery-thriller's generic roots and an analysis of the program Dark Fantasy illustrate how this genre included, but was not limited to, horror. It offered a broad variety of narrative types that are not addressed in histories of the horror genre or radio horror. Such generic and narrative diversity suggests fruitful connections with radio's science fiction, noir, and mystery genres, and with fantastic television anthologies like The Twilight Zone.     

Navigating the Maze: Sources for press historians

Television history channels and programming have seen considerable growth in recent years, yet empirical research on television history audiences remains limited. This essay argues that media history scholars need better to understand what happens when audiences consume television history, examining the critical debates concerning the genre's specific modalities of rendering the past on screen before exploring what opportunities and problems it affords viewers. The essay draws on original qualitative, empirical research on audiences of historical reality television through a specific, small-scale case study of BBC Wales' Coal House at War (Indus 2008). It argues for the need to retain a dual focus upon such programming's historical content and its televisuality if we are to appreciate the intricacies of viewers' cultural consumption. The essay concludes by demonstrating that audiences' own oral and written responses to television history reveal something of how people, situated in their specific times and places, understand both their past and their present.     

The history and scope of the American Economic Association’sEconLit and theEconomic Literature Index

This paper discusses the coverage and history of the American Economic Association's electronic bibliographic databases,EconLit andEconomic Literature Index. The author briefly traces the origins of the discipline of economics and discusses the history and early print bibliographies of the association, which were later expanded into electronic media with the creation of theEconomic Literature Index andEconLit. Tables show the subject and geographic scope, as well as the coverage dates and number of records, for the different document types contained in bothEconLit and theEconomic Literature Index.     

Classifying The Pseudo-Turpin Chronicle

This study focuses on the library classification practices of The Pseudo-Turpin Chronicle. The Pseudo-Turpin Chronicle has been called an enigmatic work by scholars, and the mystery has carried into library classification. The work's language of origin is not its national language. The work's varied acceptance as fact and fiction also plays into its classification practices. For many years, The Pseudo-Turpin was believed to be a true account, so it was classed as history. While the work has standard literature classification numbers, even its literature classification practices are varied.     

“You Don't Play,You Volunteer”: Narrative Public Memory Construction in Medal of Honor: Rising Sun

Narrative and ludological analysis suggests that Electronic Arts’ Medal of Honor: Rising Sun constructs a narrative of World War II that selectively retells history and constructs an Orientalist representation of the Japanese Empire. The gaming environment exists as an interactive museum that immerses gamers into history so that they experience warfare in their homes. Combining newsreels, fictional letters from home, and interviews with veterans of the “Good War,” Medal of Honor: Rising Sun retells a history that omits details of Japanese internment or atomic weapons. The intertwined themes of personal revenge for the loss of a family member and historical revenge for the attack on Pearl Harbor guide gamers through an “educational” experience of the war. Finally, its failure to simulate violence means that Medal of Honor: Rising Sun invites a critical blindness to commemorating war.     

Room for archives? Use of archival materials in <Emphasis Type="Italic">No Gun Ri</Emphasis> research

Archivists have long tried to understand users from the viewpoint of their archival collections. Such an approach misses important perspectives about use in, and users of, archives; how they perform research and develop knowledge while using archives. This study aims to comprehend the use of archival materials in research from the users’ perspective. It attempts to understand users’ perceptions of the impact of archival collections on their research, how and when archival materials are involved in the research process and how much weight they grant those materials in support of their thesis, from an actual research topic, the No Gun Ri massacre. The case of the No Gun Ri incident provides a good example of how archival materials play a role in historical discussions and an opportunity to look at archival contributions. No Gun Ri researchers acknowledged that archival documents were essential source materials for details about the incident and a major player in stimulating controversies and, consequently, provided the impetus for further publications. General recordkeeping situations also provided a circumstantial context of the incident. However, No Gun Ri researchers agreed that oral history was the most valuable and influential evidence for their major ideas and used archival documents to provide hard facts about the details of oral history. There are some unique research patterns of No Gun Ri researchers identified in this study which are different from the typical assumptions of archivists.     

‘FOR FARMERS,BY FARMERS’

This paper explores the benefits of using in-house periodicals for writing the history of interest groups and unions in southern Africa. In particular, it focuses on using The Farmer magazine as a source to write more nuanced social and cultural histories of white farmers in Zimbabwe. The importance of The Farmer to the white farming community is laid out and it is argued that long-term and detailed readings of this magazine offer the opportunity to explore the evolutions in discourse within the farming community, the processes of transition and the ambiguities of independence for a group like the white farmers. The uses described are ones that have rarely been put into practice in southern Africa, but are also ones that can be easily transposed to other settings and context.     

The Conglomeration of Public Radio: A Tale of Three Cities

A relatively unstudied development in the recent history of U.S. community and public radio is the emergence of metropolitan-based public radio networks. These are being constructed by buying out college and community facilities and frequencies by larger stations, resulting in student and community radio outlets being shifted to online streams and giving universities a one-time cash infusion, though this seems to vitiate the purpose of their educational licenses.     

Alice Goes to Russia

The article concerns translations of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland into Russian. The authors outline the history of publishing Russian translations of the work. They also discuss how Russian translators handled some difficult aspects of the work: parodies, nonsense, puns, and the social milieu in which Alice moved. A selected bibliography is included.     

Chandler v. Florida: Cameras get probation in courtrooms

The article traces the history and conflicting policies of the camera in the courtroom debate, analyzes the United States Supreme Court's decision in Chandler v. Florida, and concludes that Chandler is fundamentally a victory for states’ rights.