Kerry for President

3 thoughts on “Kerry for President”

1. Okay, I'll vote for Kerry, then.

   Actually, my reason for writing is to ask whether you find what you're looking for when you read the Tribune archives. Several months ago, I had this surreal experience in going through the microfilms at a local university: I thought the Tribune for the years roughly 1840-1850 would be full of stuff about socialism, women's rights, etc, but I just didn't tend to see that sort of thing. My recollection is hazy, but the content seemed rather thin, localized, and mundane.

   Does this complaint make any sense to you? Maybe I made a mistake somehow…

2. Hmm. "Thin, localized, and mundane" aptly describes most newspapers, I'd say. It takes a little time to get accustomed to the way that a particular newspaper reports a topic—where they put it, whether they're likely to overplay or underplay it, what headline they're likely to give it, what words they actually use. The Herald is likely to call it "socialism," for example, but the Tribune is more likely to say "associationism" or refer specifically to Fourierism. It might be easier to start with some of the secondary scholarship first—maybe Carl Guarneri's "The Utopian Alternative"? That focuses on Fourierism specifically, but that's what Greeley took an interest in. The Tribune covers women's rights conventions in the later 1840s very diligently, but there, too, it might be easier to start with a book of 20th-C scholarship first, depending on what aspect of women's rights you're looking into. Norma Basch's "In the Eyes of the Law" has lots of great New York-specific detail on married women's property rights, for example.

   Enjoyed your longish post the other day on the H-HistSex listserv, by the way.

3. "Enjoyed your longish post "

   Come on, really?

   Afterwards, I expected it would scandalize you. It was a trifle boorish (even for me!).

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