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AHA 2014: You’ve been to Washington before, but…

The American Historical Association’s 128th Annual Meeting is being held in Washington, D.C., 2-5 January 2014. For those of you attending, we’ve gathered advice about what to see and do in the Capital from author and DC resident Don Ritchie as well as members of Oxford University Press staff. And be sure to stop by Oxford’s booth #901-907 for a discount on all of our new and notable books, to browse through and pick up complementary copies of Oxford’s history journals, for a personal demonstration of Oxford’s online resource tools, or just to say hi to the Oxford history team. To get you started, here’s a preview of some of the exciting books, resources, and journals that we’re bringing with us to D.C.

By Don Ritchie

From 2-5 January 2014, the American Historical Association will return to Washington for its 128th annual meeting, as it does about every half dozen years. For historians who have traveled to Washington many times for previous conferences or to research at the Library of Congress and National Archives, the capital may have begun to feel old hat. What’s new and worth historians seeing?

You’ve been to the Lincoln Memorial, but have you gone to the Lincoln Summer Cottage? 

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Lincoln Cottage at the United States Soldiers’ and Airmen’s Home in Washington, DC. The building is dedicated as “President Lincoln and Soldiers’ Home National Monument”, April 2009. Photo by Hal Jespersen. Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.

Lincoln spent a good part of his presidency commuting to the Summer Cottage, located on the grounds of Washington’s Soldiers Home. Since 2008, the National Trust for Historic Preservation has been offering thoughtful tours of the building. And in case you’re thinking about writing a new book on Lincoln, you might stop at the new Lincoln Museum, across the street from Ford’s Theater, to contemplate its four-story tall Lincoln Book Tower–every book ever written about the sixteenth president–at its Center for Education and Leadership:

You’ve visited Arlington National Cemetery, but have you seen the Congressional Cemetery? 

Congressional Cemetery, Washington, D.C., 14 November 2009. Photo by Sarah Stierch. CC 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

Established in 1807 and handsomely restored for its bicentennial in 2007, the cemetery stands at the back end of Capitol Hill.  Early members of Congress rest alongside the likes of Elbridge Gerry (of Gerrymandering fame), Mathew Brady, John Philip Sousa, Belva Lockwood (the first woman to run for president), J. Edgar Hoover (with his mother and Clyde Tolson), and Sgt. Leonard Matlovich, whose tombstone reads: “When I was in the military, they gave me a medal for killing two men and a discharge for loving one.” Stop at the gatehouse for historically-oriented walking maps.

You’ve toured the Capitol, but have you explored the Capitol Visitor Center, which opened in 2008? 

Emancipation Hall of the Capitol Visitor Center, 27 October 2008. Photo by Architect of the Capitol. Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.

You don’t need a ticket to enter from the street or through a tunnel from the Library of Congress.  Its expansive, underground Emancipation Hall features some of the latest statutes contributed by the states that have diversified the collection with images ranging from Frederick Douglass and Helen Keller to Sakakawea and Astronaut Jack Swigert.  It also offers an exhibit hall dedicated to the history of the Capitol and the Congress, with films on the Senate and House of Representatives.

You’ve walked around the Capitol grounds, but have you ever stopped at the Botanical Gardens, at its base?

United States Botanic Garden, 31 July 2013. Photo by Ingfbruno. CC 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

Congress established it in 1820, expeditions began collecting botanical specimens in the 1830s, the first greenhouse was erected in 1843, and the current structure was remodeled and reopened in 2001. Visitors and winter-weary Washingtonians go there to enjoy tropical rain forests and desert heat in January.

You’ve made the trek to the Jefferson, Lincoln, and Vietnam Memorials, but have you circled the Tidal Basin to visit the FDR Memorial (opened in 1997) and nearby Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial (opened in 2011)? 

Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial in Washington, D.C., 15 July 2012. Photo by Another Believer. CC 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

Both memorials feature extensive quotations reflecting their historical message–although King’s has recently undergone some sand-blasted editing. Each Memorial has its own subject-related book store, convenient for browsing and a warm break on a cold winter’s day.

You’ve climbed to the top of the Washington Monument, which has been closed for repairs to earthquake damage, but have you taken in the spectacular view from the balcony of the Newseum?

Newseum, Washington, D.C., 26 April 2013. Photo by Another Believer. CC 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

The Newseum opened at its Pennsylvania Avenue location in 2008, and offers an extensive multimedia collection on the history of news reporting.

You’ve seen every Smithsonian Museum up and down the Mall, but have you walked a few blocks off the Mall to the National Portrait Gallery? 

National Portrait Gallery, 29 July 2011. Photo by Billy Hathorn. CC 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

It shares quarters with the Smithsonian’s American Art Museum in a building that once housed the Patent Office, served as a Civil War hospital where Clara Barton and Walt Whitman worked as nurses, and hosted Lincoln’s second inaugural ball. The museums reopened in 2006 after a major renovation. In addition to their free admission, the museums stay open to 7 p.m., and their domed atrium offers a comfortable place to rest between touring and going to dinner.

You might have picketed the South African Embassy along with one of the many groups that protested there in the Apartheid era, but have you been back to see the statue of Nelson Mandela that was just installed at its front steps? 

The Embassy of the Republic of South Africa to the United States, located at 3051 Massachusetts Ave. NW in Washington, D.C., 7 May 2005. Photo by Gyrofrog. CC 1.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

The nine-foot bronze Mandela walks forward with his clenched fist raised in salute, just as he emerged from his 27-year imprisonment. The statue serves as South Africa’s response to the British embassy, across Massachusetts Avenue, where a statue of Winston Churchill gives his familiar V for Victory sign.

Finally, you may remember–or at least heard of–the Washington riots that followed the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1968, but have you seen the revival of the old riot corridors along 14th Street NW, and H Street NE? 

The intersection of 14th & H Streets, NW in Washington, D.C., 8 January 2009. Photo by AgnosticPreachersKid. CC 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

After languishing for the last four decades, both streets are booming with new apartments, restaurants, theaters, and galleries.

As a bonus, if you want to know where all the cool people are going to be after conference hours (besides Oxford’s annual AHA fete on Saturday, January 4th from 5:30-7:30, which you’re all invited to), we asked OUP Staffers about their favorite places to go in D.C.

Niko Pfund, President and Publisher of Oxford University Press:

“My favorite thing to do in Washington, DC is spend a few hours in Politics and Prose.”

Sarah Szatkowski, Journals History Marketing:

“One of my favorite restaurants is Peking Gourmet. This is a Chinese restaurant in Bailey’s Crossroads.  It’s really good.”

Elyse Turr, Academic/Trade History Marketing:

“My sister and I attend the National Book Festival every Fall –so for the festivals and activities there, the National Mall is my favorite place to go.”

Stuart Roberts, Academic/Trade Religion Editorial:

“Whenever I’m in D.C. I do my best to spend an afternoon at The Phillips Collection. Housed in the collector’s old brownstone, it’s one of the country’s best collections of impressionist art. Come nightfall I enjoy Black Cat—a storied venue with a full schedule of regional bands.”

Rebecca Hecht, Academic/Trade History Editorial:

“I haven’t spent too much time in D.C., but I once went on a trip to the Holocaust Museum, which is one of the more famous Holocaust museums in the world.”

Kate Pais, Academic/Trade History Marketing:

“The one time I went to D.C., I really enjoyed walking everywhere. The rivers and streams cutting through the city are beautiful, and while it’s chilly now, I’m sure snowy Woodley Park is stunning.”

Donald A. Ritchie is historian of the US Senate, where he conducts an oral history program. A past president of the Oral History Association, he has also served on the councils of the International Oral History Association and the American Historical Association. He is the author of many books, including Doing Oral History: A Practical Guide, Reporting from Washington, and The U.S. Congress: A Very Short Introduction. He is also the editor of The Oxford Handbook of Oral History.

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                Related StoriesQ&A with Claire Payton on Haiti, spirituality, and oral historyThe Thirteenth AmendmentA Nelson Mandela reading list 

A Nelson Mandela reading list

Compiled by Julia Callaway

Here we celebrate the life and legacy of Nelson Mandela. From his early days as an activist, to his trial and imprisonment, to his presidency, this reading list of books, online articles, and journal articles covers all aspects of his life, and looks beyond the work he did to see how he influenced South Africa and the world.

Mandela: A Critical Life by Tom Lodge

Drawing on a wide range of original sources, Mandela: A Critical Life uncovers a host of fresh insights about the shaping of Mandela’s personality and public persona, from his childhood days and early activism, through his twenty-seven years of imprisonment, to his presidency of the new South Africa.

“Nelson Mandela” in Who’s Who

Nelson Mandela’s entry in Who’s Who, the leading source of up-to-date information about the most influential people in British public life.

Saving Nelson Mandela: The Rivonia Trial and the Fate of South Africa by Kenneth S. Broun

When South Africa’s apartheid government charged Nelson Mandela with planning its overthrow in 1963, most observers feared that he would be sentenced to death. But the support he and his fellow activists in the African National Congress received during his not only saved his life, but also enabled him to save his country.

Nelson Mandela’s quotations in Oxford Essential Quotations, edited by Susan Ratcliffe

During his life, Nelson Mandela inspired people through his speeches and letters. Here is a collection of his most inspiring quotes from Oxford Essential Quotations, the online collection based on the Concise Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, Sixth Edition and Oxford Quotations by Subject, Second Edition.

Nelson Mandela: A Very Short Introduction by Elleke Boehmer

Across his life Mandela has filled a rich range of roles: handsome city-slicker, dashing guerrilla, the millennial savior figure. By examining these different roles as well as the principles which lie behind and motivate them, this Very Short Introduction presents an analytical portrait of a shape-shifting life.

“Nelson Mandela” in the Encyclopedia of Human Rights, edited by David Forsythe

Nelson Mandela dedicated his life to human rights projects and was an outspoken opponent of the apartheid state in South Africa. This article from the Encyclopedia of Human Rights looks at Mandela the activist.

Mandela, Tambo, and the African National Congress: The Struggle Against Apartheid, 1948-1990, A Documentary Survey, edited by Sheridan Johns and R. Hunt Davis, Jr.

This documentary history follows the changing nature of the African nationalist movement over a 42 year period, between the ruling National Party’s electoral victory of 1948 and the subsequent institution of apartheid, to Nelson Mandela’s release from prison. It focuses on the central roles Mandela and Oliver Tambo played in the African National Congress and the ANC’s success in overcoming government opposition to emerging as the voice of the anti-apartheid movement.

“Mandela, Nelson (Rolihlahia)” in Who’s Who in the Twentieth Century

A general biography of Nelson Mandela from Who’s Who in the Twentieth Century, which provides biographies of men and women from different countries and cultures who have contributed to the thought as well as the action of the twentieth century.

The Apartheid State in Crisis: Political Transformation of South Africa, 1975-1990 by Robert M. Price

Despite the considerable attention paid to South Africa in recent years, this text is unique in providing a comprehensive analysis of South Africa’s politics through the 1980s. It argues that the apparent stability of South Africa’s apartheid regime masked a profound political transformation during this time period, which ultimately provided a framework for political transition in the 1990s.

“Mandela, Nelson Rolihlahla” in the Dictionary of Political Biography, edited by Dennis Kavanagh and Christopher Riches

A look at Nelson Mandela’s political career in a resource that describes and assesses the lives of around 870 men and women who have shaped political events across the world.

Mobilizing for Peace: Conflict Resolution in Northern Ireland, Israel/Palestine, and South Africa, edited by Benjamin Gidron, Stanley N. Katz, and Yeheskel Hasenfeld

This in-depth study of 33 peace and conflict organizations in South Africa, Northern Ireland, and Israel and Palestine, explores the sociopolitical and cultural contexts of each of these conflicts, and shows how different types of resolution organizations have emerged.

“Mandela, Winnie” in The Oxford Encyclopedia of Women in World History, edited by Bonnie G. Smith

This article looks at the work and activism of Winnie Mandela, the second wife of Nelson Mandela, and a prominent leader of the antiapartheid movement in her own right.

Black Liberation: A Comparative History of Black Ideologies in the United States and South Africa by George M. Fredrickson

Black Liberation offers an account of how blacks in the United States and South Africa came to grips with the challenge of white supremacy. It reveals a rich history, not merely of parallel developments, but of an intricate, transatlantic web of influences and cross-fertilization.

“Privacy, the Press and the Public Interest in Post-Apartheid South Africa” by Herman Wasserman and Mashilo Boloka, Parliamentary Affairs

In post-apartheid South Africa, the media enjoy a newfound freedom. The repressive censorship laws under which the media had to operate before democratisation have been replaced by a constitution guaranteeing freedom of speech. However, there is no final consensus about what the media’s role in this new democracy should be, and what its relationship with government should entail.

Songs and Secrets: South Africa from Liberation to Governance by Barry Gilder

Written in an anecdotal style, and with a cinematic quality, Songs and Secrets explores questions of the ANC’s governance through the viewfinder of a former high-ranking member of the ANC’s secret intelligence wing. It follows the author into the ANC’s military camps in Angola, to Moscow for spycraft training, to the underground in Botswana, and into leadership positions in the administration of the new government.

“Three years after apartheid: growth, employment and redistribution?” by Jonathan Michie and Vishnu Padayachee, Cambridge Journal of Economics

In 1994 South Africa’s first ever democratic elections gave the ANC an overwhelming majority, with Nelson Mandela as President. This article reviews developments since then. It describes the economy at the beginning of the transition from apartheid, the policy initiatives of the new government, and the development of the economy over the three years following the 1994 elections. It analyses critically the government’s 1996 ‘Growth, Employment and Redistribution’ policy.

South Africa in World History by Iris Berger

This volume begins in the early centuries of the Common Era, when various groups of people settled in southern Africa, and spans the next two millennia. It highlights particular points in the history of the region, from the arrival of the Dutch in the 17th century, the British conquest in the early 19th century, to 20th century politics and the end of the apartheid state in 1994. It emphasizes social and cultural history, and draws on extensive biographical and autobiographical literature of the time.

“Understanding the Democratic Transition in South Africa“ by Robert P. Inman and Daniel L. Rubinfeld, American Law and Economics Review

South Africa has found an equilibrium that has improved the welfare of the white minority and the black majority. However, the success of the federal structure depends on the patience of the majority and their demands for redistributive public services. An impatient and more radical majority party threatens the current equilibrium.

“Facts and Faction: The Development of Church and State Relations in Democratic South Africa from 1994–2012” by Raymond Simangaliso Kumalo, Journal of Church and State

When the constitution of democratic South Africa was adopted, it had a clause that signified a major shift for the country from being a Christian state to a religiously neutral one. This meant that unlike secular states that opted to leave religion in the private realm, South Africa made a decision to embrace religion as one of the recognized pillars on which its society was to be built, but this had to be done without being biased to any particular religion.

Julia Callaway is a Social Media Coordinator at Oxford University Press. She is Deputy Editor of OUPblog.

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The speciousness of “fetal pain”

What is “fetal personhood”? What role does poverty and welfare policy play in shaping reproductive rights? Questions about reproductive rights are just as complex–and controversial–as they were in the Roe v. Wade-era. The following is adapted from Rickie Solinger’s Reproductive Politics: What Everyone Needs to Know.

Since 1980, the concept of “fetal pain” has been politically useful to anti-abortion advocates, never mind its medical speciousness. In that year, Dr. Bernard Nathanson, a former abortion-performing physician, decided to make a film, “The Silent Scream,” to illustrate the horrors of abortion after hearing President Ronald Reagan speak to a gathering of religious broadcasters about the “long and agonizing pain” of the unborn child while they are being “snuffed out.” Dr. Nathanson wanted his film to focus on and generate sympathy for the unborn child, not the unwillingly pregnant woman. In an effort to accomplish this, Nathanson focused on the alleged pain even a twelve-week gestational age fetus suffered in the process of an abortion. The film was first aired on the TV show Jerry Falwell Live, and has been a hugely successful mainstay of anti-abortion education since then. The enduring impact of “The Silent Scream” has been bold and clear this week as Representative Trent Franks’ bill to enact a federal 20-week abortion ban freely jettisons science and political integrity , making the same old discredited claims about “fetal pain.”

Many obstetricians and others have pointed out that whatever scientists ultimately conclude about fetuses and pain, “The Silent Scream” is effective propaganda but not an adequate or accurate vehicle for education about abortion. In the film, the two-inch-long fetus is magnified massively. Dr. Nathanson, as the commentator within the film, stands next to a TV screen showing an abortion in progress. He interprets what the viewer is seeing, while holding in his arms a baby-sized doll to explain the position and movements of the fetus. Both the doll and the magnified fetus suggest, visually, that the twelve-week fetus, which Dr. Nathanson refers to as “the child,” is the equivalent of a live baby. Nathanson explains that the fetus is recoiling in pain as the abortion instrument makes contact with it. He says, “We see the child’s mouth open in a silent scream.”

Neonatologists and other scientists have objected to Nathanson’s specific identification of fetal body parts that at twelve weeks cannot be visually differentiated in the way Nathanson indicates, and to the doctor’s commentary about the meaning of the fetus’s movements. Scientists have also objected to his association of pain with a fetus which, in the first trimester, has yet to develop a brain or the neural pathways that are necessary for perceiving and responding to pain. Nevertheless, the film has been very influential, perhaps primarily because of the emotional impact of its association of abortion and fetal pain. Some viewers have argued that no matter what the scientific accuracy of the film, “The Silent Scream” is valuable because it forces viewers to deal with moral questions raised by abortion. Politically, the film continues to be important to the anti-abortion movement because of the ways it explicitly links the movement to compassion for the fetus and implicitly associates abortion providers with deadly violence.

Fetal face profile at 22 weeks. Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.

A generation after the release of “The Silent Scream,” many states have enacted laws requiring women seeking abortions after twenty-two weeks, or even earlier, to be provided with specific information, using prescribed language, informing them that a fetus of twenty weeks’ gestation “has all the physical structures necessary to experience pain,” that the fetus will recoil from pain, and that “unborn children who are 20 weeks gestational age or older who undergo prenatal surgery” are routinely administered anesthesia.

These “informed consent” laws break with tradition, as most informed consent laws generally allow the physician to determine what relevant information to impart to the patient. Here legislatures and health departments provide the scripts, and physicians are constrained to deliver them in order to fulfill what the statutes identify as the state’s obligation to a woman’s “right to know” the facts. In this way, the informed consent laws identify the anti-abortion movement, not reproductive rights, with women’s rights.

The laws also challenge the “informed consent” standard articulated in Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey, which requires all information imparted to be both “truthful and not misleading.” After all, the question of fetal pain remains unresolved, a subject of scientific study and debate. Indeed, neonatologists agree that certain anatomical structures must be in place before a fetus can experience pain, and that science has not resolved questions about fetal consciousness or awareness of bodily responses. In addition, experts acknowledge that anesthesia is administered for fetal surgery for a number of reasons independent of questions of fetal pain, including to inhibit fetal movement, to prevent uterine contractions, and to prevent hormonal stress responses.

Rickie Solinger is a historian and curator. She has written and edited a number of books about reproductive politics, including Reproductive Politics: What Everyone Needs to Know; Wake Up Little Susie: Single Pregnancy and Race before Roe v. Wade; and Beggars and Choosers: How the Politics of Choice Shapes Adoption, Abortion, and Welfare in the U.S. Solinger has organized exhibitions that have traveled to 140 college and university galleries over the past eighteen years. She lives in the Hudson Valley and New York City.

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Q&A with Claire Payton on Haiti, spirituality, and oral history

By Caitlin Tyler-Richards

About a month ago, when we celebrated the release of the Oral History Review Volume 40.2, we mentioned that one of the goals in putting together the issue was to expand the journal’s geographical scope. Towards that end, we were excited to publish Claire Payton’s “Vodou and Protestantism, Faith and Survival: The Contest over Spiritual Meaning of the 2010 Earthquake in Haiti.” Hopefully, by now you have all had a chance to read Payton’s article, in which she discusses the Haiti Memory Project and the spiritual dimension of everyday Haitians’ testimony following the January 2010 earthquake. If not, be sure to have a look before or after you read my follow-up interview with the author.

Claire Payton

Caitlin Tyler-Richards: The Haiti Memory Project (HMP) plays a large part in your article, so could you talk a bit more about how you came to the idea?

Claire Payton: The idea for the HMP emerged from conversations I had with friends and colleagues in the weeks following the 2010 earthquake, about the possibilities and limitations of responding to a disaster like that from afar. There was a lot of talk in the media about what Haitians were experiencing and what they needed, but not much of it from Haitians themselves.

Caitlin Tyler-Richards: Of course. And do you — or others — plan to add to it in the future?

Claire Payton: Over the past year, I have been overseeing follow-up interviews with some of the participants, which has provided another dimension to memories of disaster.

Caitlin Tyler-Richards: Excellent! As we see in your article, your work with the HMP has already led to some excellent insights on Haitian spirituality, the fluidity of which you suggest is especially visible in survivors’ testimony. How did you come to this particular topic?

Claire Payton: Honestly, I resisted writing about it for a while. Vodou in particular is often a gateway for essentializing, exotifying narratives about Haiti, so as a scholar I never had much interest in it. But it was hard not to recognize that tensions around spirituality and identity were practically omnipresent across the HMP interviews. They really just stood out to me, and I was being dishonest with myself by pretending otherwise. Then in late 2012 I went to Haiti as part of a research team for a UFL-Duke project called The Vodou Archive, and that basically served as a crash course in Haitian spiritual practices, taught by practitioners themselves. I felt more comfortable engaging with these issues after that.

Caitlin Tyler-Richards: Ah, okay. Somewhat related to that, could you talk a bit about conducting oral history research outside the United States and in a foreign language?

Claire Payton: It was definitely a challenge, but it was also an opportunity. The native language in Haiti is Creole, while the language of government, education, and all things official is French. When I first went to Haiti, I was fluent in French but only spoke a smattering of Haitian Creole. I worked with translator-friends. I actually learned Haitian Creole through the interviewing process, through the hours and hours every day of sitting with people and listening to them very intently and then having their words translated into French.

I didn’t always want to stop the flow of someone’s steam of consciousness because I didn’t understand and needed a translation, so I reminded myself that it was all being documented and that that was the whole point. I could listen to them again later. But going back and listening to my earliest interviews now, I see that this led me to put my foot in my mouth more than a few times and definitely shaped the relationships I established with participants. But not having optimal circumstances shouldn’t be a reason not to do something you believe is important. You make do.

Caitlin Tyler-Richards: Wow, that sounds stressful.

Claire Payton: Another complication is that Creole language transcriptions and translations are definitely harder to get done, and harder to get done right. I couldn’t do them myself. I learned how to speak Creole but I don’t really know how to write it. Like I said, it’s a challenge.

Caitlin Tyler-Richards: Speaking of challenges… Last December, I spoke with our Media Reviews Editor Jennifer Abraham Cramer about oral histories she collected following Hurricanes Rita and Katrina, and the unique position this research put her in. What was it like to collect interviews following the earthquake? Any strategies you took going in, or developed along the way? Do you have any advice for oral historians conducting research in the wake of natural disasters?

Claire Payton: Everything in the interview seems like pretty great advice, especially if you are part of a team or institution that has support for things like psychological training. But what do you do if you are just an individual with little or no funding or institutional support? How can those kinds of projects be responsible and ethical too?

When considering these issues, I take solace in Alessandro Portelli’s suggestion that oral history ethical guidelines are merely the formalization of the deeper spirit of oral history. While training is invaluable, it cannot replace an inner compass that guides many people to oral history in the first place. “Ultimately, in fact ethical and legal guidelines only make sense if they are the outward manifestation of a broader and deeper sense of personal and political commitment to honesty and truth,” (Alessandro Portelli, “Trying to Gather a Little Knowledge,” The Battle of Valle Giulia, 55).

I am by no means suggesting that people shouldn’t educate themselves about best practices and adhere to them as much as possible. But I don’t think people should not get discouraged from taking on difficult projects because they fear they can’t execute them perfectly.

Caitlin Tyler-Richards: I can say as someone who studies African History, that is one mental obstacle I often have to overcome when thinking about field research, so thank you for that. And now, as per Troy’s policy, we like to give the interviewee the last word. So, is there anything you’d like to add regarding the HMP or your article? Plugs for upcoming projects?

Claire Payton: Just that in keeping with my goal of creating new narratives about Haiti, I am developing an oral history project based on the lives of influential Haitian women! I am also developing a dissertation on urban community histories in Port-au-Prince.

Caitlin Tyler-Richards: Exciting. We look forward to seeing the result of both projects. Thanks again for the article, and for chatting with me.

Claire Payton is a graduate student in the History Department at Duke University and creator of the Haiti Memory Project. She is the author of “Vodou and Protestantism, Faith and Survival: The Contest over Spiritual Meaning of the 2010 Earthquake in Haiti” in the latest issue of the Oral History Review. You can contact her at cap50[at]duke.edu.

Caitlin Tyler-Richards is the editorial/media assistant at the Oral History Review. When not sharing profound witticisms at @OralHistReview, Caitlin pursues a PhD in African History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her research revolves around the intersection of West African history, literature and identity construction, as well as a fledgling interest in digital humanities. Before coming to Madison, Caitlin worked for the Lannan Center for Poetics and Social Practice at Georgetown University.

The Oral History Review, published by the Oral History Association, is the U.S. journal of record for the theory and practice of oral history. Its primary mission is to explore the nature and significance of oral history and advance understanding of the field among scholars, educators, practitioners, and the general public. Follow them on Twitter at @oralhistreview, like them on Facebook, add them to your circles on Google Plus, follow them on Tumblr, listen to them on Soundcloud, or follow the latest OUPblog posts via email or RSS to preview, learn, connect, discover, and study oral history.

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Image Credit: Image courtesy of Claire Payton.

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From radio to YouTube

By Cynthia B. Meyers

In this 1920s advertisement, BBDO promotes using electricity rather than a specific GE product. (Reproduced in BBDO: The First Hundred Years, p. 24)

AT&T has produced a teen reality program, @summerbreak , seen not on TV but on social media platforms, such as Twitter, YouTube, and Tumblr. General Electric is sponsoring articles in the magazine The Economist. Pepsico has a blog site, Green- Label, devoted to skateboarding, rap music, and other interests of “millennial males.”

These examples of branded content, sometimes called content marketing or branded entertainment, are new versions of an old advertising strategy. Advertisers in the 1930s wanted to use a new medium, radio, but they were worried that advertising would alienate listeners. So they integrated the advertising into the entertainment, which they sponsored, controlled, and owned.

In the 1930s-50s, Batten, Barton, Durstine & Osborn was the top advertising agency making “institutional advertising,” or corporate image advertising. Rather than sell a specific product, BBDO created ad campaigns for clients such as General Electric, General Motors, Du Pont, and US Steel that were designed to endear those large corporations to consumers, associating them with laudable values like progress, innovation, and growth. For example, in the 1920s BBDO made print ads for General Electric promoting the use of electricity generally.

In the 1930s, BBDO produced a radio program for General Motors, Parade of States, that celebrated the attractions in various US states that might be reached by automobile. For Du Pont, a chemicals manufacturer accused of war profiteering, BBDO produced Cavalcade of America, a radio docudrama about inventors and innovators. For US Steel, BBDO oversaw Theatre Guild on the Air (1945-53) a radio anthology program that presented a different live play every week in order to associate the “industrial family that serves the nation” with highbrow culture. When it shifted to television in 1953, the program was renamed US Steel Hour. BBDO worked to associate GE with highbrow culture in the 1950s anthology drama television program, General Electric Theater, hosted by Ronald Reagan. In each case, BBDO associated a corporate brand not with a product, but with a feeling.

The US Steel Hour was a 1950s live drama anthology television program, overseen by BBDO, designed to associate the manufacturer with highbrow theater. Screenshot via YouTube.

Today, BBDO is helping produce branded content on digital platforms, especially for advertisers concerned with reaching audiences who may not see television commercials. BBDO’s client General Electric hopes that its sponsored articles in The Economist will convince readers of its commitment to innovative technology. BBDO’s client AT&T promotes cellular phone services with the reality series @summerbreak. The product placement is subtle. For example, teenagers near an airport use their phones to take “selfies” showing a plane taking off in the background. BBDO’s client Pepsico promotes its Mountain Dew brand with a site designed to appeal to its target market, young men, for which it has recruited music entertainers like Joey Badass.

An AT&T @summerbreak cast member uses his cell phone to take a “selfie” with a flying airplane. The online reality show promotes the use of cell phone services. Screenshot via YouTube.

The Green Label site doesn’t interrupt viewers with obvious advertising, but it carefully brands all the entertainment with the green theme of the Mountain Dew packaging.

However, advertisers today, like advertisers of the past, face challenges integrating advertising and entertainment. As BBDO’s client Pepsi once learned after featuring Madonna in a 1989 television commercial, close association between advertiser and entertainer may lead to negative publicity. And the goals of the advertiser may conflict with those of the creative artists and producers. Nonetheless, now that audiences have so many options, advertisers and agencies believe that more advertising must resemble the content and entertainment that they think audiences want. More, not less, branded entertainment is in our future, just as it was in our past.

Cynthia B. Meyers is author of A Word from Our Sponsor published by Fordham University Press. She is an Associate Professor of Communication at the College of Mount Saint Vincent in New York City. She received her Ph.D. in Radio-Television-Film from the University of Texas at Austin.

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The new lipid guidelines and an age-old principle

By Michael Hochman, MD, MPH

With the issuing of its updated report on the management of lipids, the American Heart Association (AHA) hoped to provide a clear message to health care providers and consumers about how to use lipid-lowering medications. Instead, the new recommendations have been mired in controversy due to concerns about the validity of the data used in the report. Although the controversy will detract from the credibility of the new report — and rightfully so — it also sheds light on an important and often overlooked point: the risks and benefits of medical services varies considerably based on a patient’s underlying risk. In the long run, this may do more to improve medical decision-making than a smooth roll-out of the new recommendations would have.

The controversy surrounding the AHA report concerns the calculator that the AHA recommends for predicting cardiovascular risk. According to two renowned Harvard professors, Dr. Paul Ridker and Dr. Nancy Cook, the calculator substantially overestimates risk — by as much as two-fold or more. The reason may be that the calculator chosen by the AHA was developed using decades-old data from a time when cardiovascular event rates were higher due to higher rates of smoking and other factors. Ridker and Cook informed the AHA about their concerns prior to the release of the recommendations, but it appears their concerns were overlooked.

Why is a faulty risk calculator such a concern? The reason is that the risks and benefits of lipid-lowering medications varies considerably based on a patient’s underlying risk. For example, in one famous study (the 4S study), statin medications (the most widely used and effective lipid-lowering medications) were found to reduce cardiovascular events from 28% to 19% — for a net benefit of 9% over five years. In another study (Jupiter), statins reduce cardiovascular events from just 2.7% to 1.5% — for a net benefit of 1.2% over two years. Why the discrepancy? Quite simply, in the first study patients were at much higher risk for cardiovascular disease (all patients in the study had a history of cardiovascular disease) and thus had much more room to benefit.

From the data above, it is clear that high risk patients like those included in the first study should take statin medications. But for healthier patients similar to those included in the second study, the decision is less clear. Although statins are likely to reduce cardiovascular risk among such patients, the benefits are more modest. Since statins also have side effects — muscle aches, liver damage, and possibly increased rates of diabetes and dementia — the harms may outweigh the benefits.

In the report, the AHA recommends statin medications for all patients with a 10-year risk of cardiovascular disease greater than 7.5%. According to the AHA, the benefits of statins outweigh the risks in this population. But for patients with a 10-year risk less than 7.5%, the risk-to-benefit profile is less clear. This is why the concerns raised by Ridker and Cook are so important: if the AHA calculator overestimates cardiovascular risk, it could cause many patients to take statins who might not benefit — or might even be harmed. Clearly it will be important to resolve the risk calculator controversy before further disseminating the new recommendations.

The principle that the risks and benefits of medical services varies based on a patient’s underlying risk is not confined to cardiovascular disease. In fact, it applies to virtually every other condition. As an example, some healthy patients request whole body CT scans from their doctor in the hopes of identifying early-stage cancers that might be treated before they become harmful. While intuitively this seems appealing, the risk of cancer in such patients is low, and any abnormalities identified are likely red herrings that could lead to unnecessary worry and harmful follow-up testing such as invasive biopsies.

In addition, the risks and benefits of medical services can be complex, and often there aren’t good data to provide guidance. For example, no one would recommend a knee replacement for a patient with minor knee pain. But on the other hand, it wouldn’t make sense to give a knee replacement to a patient with severe knee pain if that patient had advanced heart failure and not much time left to live. The challenge for patients and doctors is to find the sweet spot where the benefits of health care services outweigh the risk. This requires using a combination of data and common sense.

Because of the controversy, the new AHA recommendations will not provide the clear guidance on how to use lipid-lowering medications that many had anticipated. But hopefully the controversy will serve as a reminder for all of us to consider underlying risk when making medical decisions.

Dr. Hochman is the Medical Director for Innovation at AltaMed Health Services, the largest independent federally qualified health center in the United States, He recently authored 50 Studies Every Doctor Should Know, published by Oxford University Press.

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Image credit: Male anatomy of human organs in x-ray view. Image by janulla, iStockphoto.

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A year in Very Short Introductions: 2013

By Chloe Foster

2013 has been a busy year for the Very Short Introductions (VSIs). Keeping our authors busy with weekly VSI blog posts is not the only thing we’ve been up to. Here’s a reminder of just some of the highlights from our VSI year.

January

Last year we partnered with the Guardian to launch a student film competition. Students were tasked with creating a minute-long film on a subject they felt passionate about. The deadline for entries was January 2013, and we certainly had a lot to choose from. Eventually we managed to whittle it down to a longlist. Ultimately though, it was up to the public to decide the shortlist of three.

March

On the 21st of March, we held a live final event at the Guardian premises in London. VSI authors, student journalists, and some high profile judges were amongst the crowd. Sally Le Page, with her film on Evolution, was crowned the winner of the competition and won £9000 toward her studies. VSI publisher, Luciana, was on hand to present the enormous cheque.

March can only mean one thing to the VSI publicist, and that is the annual Very Short Introductions  soapboxes at the Oxford Literary festival. This year, we had 14 authors across the week, giving short talks on everything from the British Empire to the Gothic in Blackwell’s bookshop. We particular enjoyed the props that Elleke Boehmer brought to her talk on Nelson Mandela.

April

Very Short Introductions are now known the world over for filling in the gaps in your knowledge, so who better to judge the ‘Debating Matters’ final than our VSI marketer Julie?

July

With nearly 375 titles in the series, we now have more authors than ever to take part in talks at festivals. Ways with Words festival in Dartington loved having five of our authors do short talks, with the room packed out with fans old and new. The subjects couldn’t have been more diverse (one of the reasons why people love us), with talks on engineering, the French Revolution, the Gothic, contemporary fiction, and rhetoric. Luckily for the festival organizers, it was the most gloriously sunny day!

July also saw the launch of Robert Eaglestone’s Contemporary Fiction: A Very Short Introduction. This central London launch was attended by academics, friends, and family. Of course a launch wouldn’t be a launch without an accompanying playlist.

September

We decided it was time to put as many of our VSIs as possibly onto one platform. Very Short Introductions online launched on the 24th of September, giving students, librarians, and academics the opportunity to access over 350 titles through their institutional library. Over 350 VSIs were launched online in an discoverable, accessible format, available via institutional subscription. Through the Oxford Index, a free search and discovery tool from Oxford University Press, this exciting new online resource places the VSIs directly alongside reference, biography, bibliography, monograph, dictionary, scholarly, and journal content, allowing them to become a more integrated and accessible part of all digital research journeys.

VSI fan and journalist GrrlScientist was thrilled with the idea. Our publisher also explained why it’s so important for VSIs to be part of Oxford’s online platform.

An unusually warm and sunny summer in the UK gave the chance for our favourite animal fans to pose with Happiness: A Very Short Introduction. Nothing says happiness like dogs basking in the sun.

October

We were very proud to hear of The History of Mathematics: A Very Short Introduction winning the BSHM Neumann Prize 2013. It was presented to author Jackie Stedall on the 31st of October.

By the end of October, the VSI series had grown so much, that we had to create new furniture for them to be housed in bookshops!

November

The 27th of November saw the launch of the 366th Very Short Introduction in the series. Lord Krebs gave a short speech to launch his Food: A Very Short Introduction.

The Very Short Introductions Facebook page reached 5,000 likes in November. We love hearing from fans from all over the world, whether it’s a question or simply telling us your favourite book in the series.

2014 already looks like it’s going to be just as busy, with events lined up for Oxford Literary Festival, Chipping Norton Literary Festival, Words by the Water, and Edinburgh Science festival with more to be announced. We’ll also be publishing our 400th VSI in autumn 2014 – who would have thought it, almost twenty years ago?

The Very Short Introductions (VSI) series combines a small format with authoritative analysis and big ideas for hundreds of topic areas. Written by our expert authors, these books can change the way you think about the things that interest you and are the perfect introduction to subjects you previously knew nothing about. Grow your knowledge with OUPblog and the VSI series every Friday and like Very Short Introductions on Facebook.

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Image credits: (1) supplied by Monia Antonioli. Image (3) by Debating Matters. All other pictures by Chloe Foster

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Reading the tea leaves: a Q&A with Costas Panagopoulos

By R. Michael Alvarez

In a matter of months, federal elections in the United States will enter full-swing. I recently asked Costas Panagopoulos, a professor at Fordham University and an expert on political campaigns, a few questions about the important elections recently conducted in the United States and what we might learn from those recent campaigns.

Recently there have been three important elections in the United States with potential national implications: the special election for New Jersey’s US Senate seat, and gubernatorial elections in New Jersey and Virginia. What are the lessons that can be learned from these three important elections?

One of the main lessons to come out of the 2013 election results is that voters are fed up. Against the backdrop of gridlock, shutdowns, and showdowns in Washington, many voters are simply alienated, as record-low, like-cycle turnout in places like New York City, New Jersey, and elsewhere suggest. In New Jersey, turnout was about 38%, roughly ten percentage points lower than the prior record-low turnout rate of 47% set in the gubernatorial race in 2009. Confidence in government—politicians and institutions—is at an alarmingly low level, implying incumbents have their work cut out for them in the midterm cycle next year. There is even some evidence that the public may be (finally?) reacting against extreme partisan polarization (as Tea Party-favorite Dean Young’s loss in Alabama’s solidly conservative 1st Congressional suggests). Even Christie’s win in New Jersey cannot be pinned up as a triumph for the far right given his more moderate views.

United States President Barack Obama with New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and members of his staff in Chief of Staff Jack Lew’s office in the West Wing of the White House on 6 December 2012. Photo by Pete Souza. Courtesy of the White House.

Social media and other new electronic communication technologies are becoming prominent political tools (for example, Cory Booker currently has over 1.4 million Twitter followers). How have recently campaigns used these new tools? Are there emerging best practices for the use of social media in campaigns?

Political campaigns are adapting rapidly to the changing social media landscape and learning to leverage these technologies to mobilize and persuade voters. Campaigns at all levels are pouring considerable resources into tapping social media opportunities. The Obama examples (in both 2008 and 2012) still stand out as exemplary models, but Booker and others in subsequent cycles have risen to the occasion. In many ways, it is still way too early to speak of “best practices” when it comes to social media given how quickly the technology is changing and evolving, but campaigns are learning to experiment, to think outside the box, and to run integrated campaigns that blend new and traditional forms of outreach and communication to maximum effect.

Looking ahead to the 2014 congressional elections in the United States, what new trends in campaign practices do you see emerging?

The social dimensions of voter participation and engagement are becoming increasingly potent. Campaigns are finding that top-down, hierarchical communication may not be as effective and peer-to-peer communication. There is a great deal of emphasis on honing strategies that target voters and that take advantage of social networks.

“Big data” analytics have been pointed to as one of the reasons for Obama’s victory in 2012; to what extend do you believe that conventional wisdom is correct, and do you see that either political party has a lead in the use of “big data” analytics going into the 2014 congressional and 2016 presidential election cycles in the United States?

“Big data” is an integral part of any modern campaign, and it is here to stay. We’re living in an age in which most politicians have more information about voters than voters have about politicians. This will only intensify in the years ahead. Although Democrats may be slightly ahead of the curve on big data (given the Obama teams’ efforts in 2008 and 2012), Republicans are not oblivious to these developments, and they are quickly catching up. It’s also unclear how much access Democrats more generally will have to resources and data that the “Obama for America” team assembled in past races. One thing is for sure, big data analytics will be a part of any modern campaign strategy.

Costas Panagopoulos is Associate Professor of Political Science and Director of the Center for Electoral Politics and Democracy and the Master’s Program in Elections and Campaign Management at Fordham University. His research has been published in the American Journal of Political Science, the Journal of Politics and Political Analysis. He is currently working on a book about modern campaigns titled Political Campaigns: Context, Choices and Consequences (Oxford University Press).

R. Michael Alvarez is a professor of Political Science at Caltech. His research and teaching focuses on elections, voting behavior, and election technologies. He is editor-in-chief of Political Analysis with Jonathan N. Katz. Read his previous articles on the OUPblog.

Political Analysis chronicles the exciting developments in the field of political methodology, with contributions to empirical and methodological scholarship outside the diffuse borders of political science. It is published on behalf of The Society for Political Methodology and the Political Methodology Section of the American Political Science Association. Political Analysis is ranked #5 out of 157 journals in Political Science by 5-year impact factor, according to the 2012 ISI Journal Citation Reports. Like Political Analysis on Facebook and follow @PolAnalysis on Twitter.

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Oxford’s top 10 carols of 2013

Christmas is big at Oxford University Press and carol-related tasks continue virtually all year. We publish most of the festive music that the world knows and loves, and our editors started working on carols for this Christmas in the summer of 2012. We’re all carolled out every year by August! October, November, and December are particularly frantic for our Music Hire Library. All you carollers out there need your Christmas accompaniments to arrive within the same few weeks (not that we’re complaining — obviously that’s how it has to be), and omissions and additions can happen to anyone, and usually do.

Miriam and Bethan, the Hire Library worker elves, have despatched hundreds of parcels worldwide containing an average of five orchestral sets in each order. And there’s problem-solving on top of their day to day work-load; OUP has run out of sets of Rutter’s Candlelight Carol, someone’s lost the first clarinet part of O little town, the courier’s arrived with the parcel but the church was locked.

Here’s a Spotify playlist of the 10 carols Miriam and Bethan send out most often. We hope it gets you in the Christmas mood:

And, digging deeper, here is a list of our top 20 most-hired carols — many of them from the much-loved and much-used Carols for Choirs series. All the old favourites are here, plus a few newer carols which are destined to live just as long!

“O come, all ye faithful,” David Willcocks, from Carols for Choirs 1 and 100 Carols for Choirs
“Hark! the herald-angels sing,” Mendelssohn, arr. David Willcocks, from Carols for Choirs 1 and 100 Carols for Choirs
“Once in royal David’s city,” Gauntlett, arr. David Willcocks, from Carols for Choirs 2 and 100 Carols for Choirs
“Candlelight Carol,” John Rutter, from Carols for Choirs 5
“Shepherd’s pipe carol,” John Rutter, from Carols for Choirs 2 and 100 Carols for Choirs
Angels’ Carol , John Rutter
“Star Carol,” John Rutter, from Carols for Choirs 3 and 100 Carols for Choirs
“The twelve days of Christmas,” John Rutter, from Carols for Choirs 2 and 100 Carols for Choirs
“Sans Day Carol,” John Rutter, from Carols for Choirs 2 and 100 Carols for Choirs
“O little town of Bethlehem,” Vaughan Williams, from Carols for Choirs 1 and 100 Carols for Choirs
“Jingle, bells,” Pierpont arr. David Willcocks, from 100 Carols for Choirs
“A merry Christmas,” arr. Arthur Warrell, from Carols for Choirs 1 and 100 Carols for Choirs
On Christmas Night – vocal score, Bob Chilcott
“Nativity carol,” John Rutter, from Carols for Choirs 2 and 100 Carols for Choirs
Christmas Lullaby , John Rutter
On Christmas Night – score and parts for chamber accompaniment, Bob Chilcott
“Good King Wenceslas,” arr. Reginald Jacques, from Carols for Choirs 1
“It came upon a midnight clear,” Arthur Sullivan arr. David Willcocks, from Carols for Choirs 2 and 100 Carols for Choirs
“Sussex Carol,” arr. David Willcocks, from Carols for Choirs 1 and 100 Carols for Choirs
Dance and Sing (Il est né) , Ryan Murphy

The Oxford University Press Music Hire Library is one of the largest commercial music hire libraries in the world. Our hire catalogue contains thousands of individual titles. We have especially strong representation in twentieth-century British music, classic choral editions, and opera choruses. We also own the largest Christmas carol orchestration library in the world.

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Robert Morison’s Plantarum historiae universalis Oxoniensis

By Scott Mandelbrote

On 9 November 1683, Robert Morison was knocked down by a coach in the Strand. He died the following day. At the time, Morison was both botanist to King Charles II and Professor of Botany in the University of Oxford, where he lectured regularly in the Botanic Garden. His appointment at Oxford derived from an approach that he had made to John Fell in 1669, and his activities there were always linked to efforts to publish his work as part of the revival of the University Press.

Morison issued a specimen of his herbal in 1672, with a plan of his system of classification based on seed types, and illustrated with full-page engravings. These were mostly paid for by Oxford luminaries and had been engraved on copper by David Loggan, whom Fell had hired to provide illustrations for the University Press. As work progressed in the 1670s, Morison depended more and more on migrant engravers living in London. He also sought subscribers from the members of the Royal College of Physicians and the Society of Apothecaries, and, with strikingly little success, from the new Royal Society. Morison’s ideas about the growth and classification of plants were widely discussed: the diarist and keen horticulturalist John Evelyn, for example, wrote about Morison’s discovery of the propensity of London Rocket to germinate among the ruins caused by the Great Fire of 1666. Part two of Morison’s intended History of Plants (the first volume to be published) was fully subscribed as well as extensively illustrated when it appeared from the Oxford press in 1680.

Morison’s early death, however, posed a serious threat both to the future of his project and to the nascent University Press, whose financial investment in the herbal seemed unlikely to pay off if the book remained incomplete. Fell therefore commissioned the younger Jacob Bobart, superintendant of the Botanic Garden, to edit Morison’s work. He also oversaw the activity of the University’s engraver, Michael Burghers, in finishing off the copper plates, many of which had already been begun by Morison’s London engravers. The process was not aided by Bobart’s inability to write in Latin (the language of Morison’s learned herbal), and was held up by the ongoing quarrels between the University Press and the London Stationers’ Company, which represented the book trade in the capital. In the end, many subscribers died before they received the third part of the herbal (the second and final volume to be published) in 1699. The first part, dealing with trees, was never printed and there is little sign that Morison had progressed far with its preparation by the time of his death.

Morison’s widow (‘that sharp Gentlewoman’, as Thomas Tanner called her) kept up a running battle with the University over liabilities arising from the herbal. Their quarrel remained unsettled for more than a decade and a half after her husband’s death, and formed the background for the growing realization that the herbal represented a financial disaster for the University Press. Botanists with whom Morison had differed during his lifetime, above all John Ray, crowed about the posthumous shortcomings of his work. For the contemporary University of Oxford, Morison’s herbal appears to have been a white elephant: one of several overambitious ventures that left Fell’s press painfully licking its wounds by the 1690s.

By permission of Stephen Harris, Department of Plant Sciences, Oxford: A specimen from the Morisonian Herbarium annotated by Jacob Bobart the younger

To the historian, by contrast, Morison’s herbal is a godsend. One can trace Morison’s activity in the Botanic Garden and in the preparation of his work through specimens that Bobart helped to manage and that still remain in the Morisonian Herbarium of the Department of Plant Sciences. The publication history of Morison’s work can be reconstructed from invoices that survive in the University Archives and in the collections of papers, in Oxford and elsewhere, of the scholars who assisted Bobart in preparing part three of the herbal. Because of the financial quarrels that surrounded it, Morison’s History of Plants is one of the best-documented books produced by the University Press during the seventeenth century. Almost uniquely, the copper plates for its publication survive. They were acquired by the University as part of the negotiations with Mrs Morison, and, having survived various vicissitudes (including a period of service as lift weights), they can now be consulted in the Sherardian Library of Plant Taxonomy.

By permission of the Codrington Library, All Souls College, Oxford: A page from part three of Morison’s History of Plants, showing a plate prepared by Michael Burghers

Without Morison’s accident and unexpected death, the early history of the University Press might have been smoother, but the opportunities for the modern historian of OUP would have been far less enticing.

Scott Mandelbrote is Fellow and Librarian of Peterhouse, Cambridge. He has written about Morison for the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, in the chapter on scientific books in the first volume of The History of Oxford University Press, and in a forthcoming special issue on scientific illustrations of The Huntington Library Quarterly.

With access to extensive archives, The History of Oxford University Press is the first complete scholarly history of the Press, detailing its organization, publications, trade, and international development. Read previous blog posts about the history of Oxford University Press.

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