SchlagerBlog

We are about a week away from publication of our second title, Milestone Documents of American Leaders. The mad dash to the finish line partially explains my silence on this blog over the past few weeks. Today I’m flying to Newark for a sales presentation about the set to our distributor, Salem Press. It’s a great opportunity to offer my vision for the set and the series in general, and it’s a good excuse to brush up on my PowerPoint skills.

Meanwhile, I’ve been doing some work to get the data for American Leaders in final, pristine XML shape for the electronic database that purchasing libraries get for free, Salem History. (And big news on this front: we’re offering an exclusive online article about Barack Obama’s speeches and writings for those libraries that buy the print set.) While doing that, I’ve realized that there are a number of April birth anniversaries for people covered in our set. Yesterday (April 22), for instance, was the anniversary of Robert Oppenheimer’s birth. (It was also the anniversary of George Washington’s influential Proclamation of Neutrality , which was our Doc of the Day at the Milestone Documents Blog.) Today is the anniversary of the births of both James Buchanan and Stephen A. Douglas, while Saturday is the anniversary of William Brennan’s birth. Next week sees birth anniversaries for Ulysses S. Grant (April 27) and James Monroe (April 28), while we’re just past the anniversaries for folks like Colin Powell (April 5), Allen Dulles (April 7), Frances Perkins (April 10), Henry Clay (April 12), Thomas Jefferson (April 13), and Roger Sherman (April 19).

We are in the early stages of a badly needed site redesign for MilestoneDocuments.com, and one of the things the redesign will accomplish is integration of the content from American Leaders with the content already in place from Milestone Documents in American History. And, above all, we will move closer to making the site an essential stop for information about famous primary documents in U.S. and world history. There is so much exciting stuff happening around the use of primary sources in the classroom, and we look forward to being a bigger part of that conversation in the months and years to come. Stay tuned for more news about our site redesign and new product offerings for students, teachers, and libraries.

As you probably know, today is the 200th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s birthday. (And how strange that it’s also the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birthday.) To mark the occasion, we’ve adapted the entry on Lincoln in our forthcoming Milestone Documents of American Leaders and inserted it into a post at the Milestone Documents Blog. The entry was written by Paul Finkelman, a renowned Lincoln scholar and the executive editor of our Milestone Documents series. As many others have observed, the man who is perhaps our greatest president was also our greatest writer-president, and so it’s especially appropriate that we mark his birthday here in the Milestone Documents universe.

Speaking of that universe, the same abridged Lincoln entry also appears in our latest newsletter. The article had to compete for space with a number of other items on the February history calendar, including Black History Month and Era 8 of the National History Standards (Great Depression and World War II). Meanwhile, the fun never stops: We’re hard at work on our fall title, Milestone Documents in World History, and you’ll be seeing some news soon related to that publication.

It was an odd ALA Midwinter meeting in Denver this past weekend. Attendance was down sharply, and as a result the traffic on the convention floor was quite lackluster–especially in the nether regions of the floor where some of the smaller presses had their booths. This included Salem Press, which is where our titles are showcased. Traffic was a little better in the center of the floor at the big booths–Gale, ProQuest, EBSCO, and so forth. Now that EBSCO has purchased Salem, they might have better proximity to the hub at future conferences.

Leaving aside the issue of traffic, these conventions have evolved into a place where vendors do business with other vendors, while showing off their products to librarians on the side. Librarians no longer make purchases on the convention floor, so one of the original justifications for vendors to exhibit their products has all but disappeared. It’s not hard to see why some vendors are choosing not to exhibit at some of these conventions.

For me, it was still a very useful conference, as I had excellent discussions with Salem about our partnership and the promotion of our upcoming titles.  I was disappointed that Milestone Documents in American History did not make the RUSA list of oustanding reference sources, but I feel certain that our future titles will be strong candidates for this award. It was fun to run into Lee Lerner at the convention, in between his ski outings.

Two items to comment on with regard to the Milestone Documents Blog. First, the American Historical Association Blog has taken notice of our historians’ roundup of Obama’s inaugural address. Second, this morning we posted the full text of Obama’s recent executive orders regarding the closing of the Guantanamo Bay detention facility and “ensuring lawful interrogations.”

Our offices are closed today to celebrate Martin Luther King Day. The intersection of MLK Day and Obama’s inauguration makes for a heady mix, as innumerable others are noting. On Tuesday, as Obama is sworn in and gives his inaugural address, the staff and I will be huddled around a computer watching via live Web streaming. I’m somewhat concerned that Net traffic will overwhelm the various servers and we’ll find ourselves out of luck; let’s hope that’s not the case. Later in the week, on the Milestone Documents Blog, I will post a historians’ roundup of the address. And one of our historian colleagues, Chester Pach, will be immediately setting to work on writing a complete analysis of the address. By March, this entry should be loaded on Salem History, where all libraries that purchased Milestone Documents in American History (and their patrons) will be able to access it for free. In addition, we’ll make it available via MilestoneDocuments.com and Amazon.com. Coming in April to those same venues, also from Chester Pach, will be analysis of Obama’s other key speeches, including his 2004 convention speech, 2008 speech on race, and his election-night address in Chicago’s Grant Park.

Speaking of inaugural addresses, we’ve wrapped up our countdown of the top 5 addresses in history at the MD Blog. I’ve heard that one sure way to bump up your blog traffic is do to a top 5 or top 10 list. While our traffic wasn’t exactly server-busting, it did show a nice spike indeed. The list was anything but scientific, of course, but it was nonetheless fun and illuminating.

Twitter grows on me. I’m finding it eases the pressure on blogging; I don’t feel like a loser when I don’t blog for days at a time, because now there is Twitter to use for quick posts and links and observations, all of which take only a few seconds. Andrea Betts wants me to display more wit and humor on this blog; I think she has me confused with someone who is witty and humorous. Nonetheless, I do think that having Twitter will make this blog better, and that’s something I hadn’t counted on.

And so we await Tuesday, and the inauguration of Barack Obama, the nation’s first African American president. The time that has elapsed since election day in November hasn’t made it any less astonishing or inspiring. He’s given some pretty amazing speeches in his time, but my guess is that he’s reserved something special for this occasion. Let’s see.

This week over at the Milestone Documents Blog, we are counting down the top 5 inaugural addresses in history. At number 5 is Thomas Jefferson’s first inaugural address, delivered in 1801. In his analysis for Milestone Documents in American History, the historian John P. Kaminski called Jefferson’s address “one of the great documents of democratic government and oratorical rhetoric.” Kaminski’s paragraph-by-paragraph investigation of the document is illuminating and well worth the $6.99 cost for immediate download at either MilestoneDocuments.com or Amazon.com.

The rest of the week will see discussion of the top 4 addresses: Franklin D. Roosevelt’s first inaugural address, George Washington’s first inaugural address, John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address, and Abraham Lincoln’s second inaugural address. Check back every day at the Milestone Documents Blog to see what our team of experts had to say about these iconic addresses.

Today we released the January edition of our Milestone Documents newsletter. The primary focus is on the Progressive Era and World War I, but we also devote some attention to famous inaugural addresses in U.S. history.

In addition, with an eye toward Black History Month in February, we’ve launched a new survey: Which is the most important primary source document in African American history? The candidates are duly famous, and not all of them are “positive”–in keeping with the notion that history is not an unbroken line of ever-more-virtuous acts and events. Progress is always hard-fought. Herewith the five candidates we’ve chosen for the survey:

• Dred Scott v. Sandford
• The Emancipation Proclamation
• Plessy v. Ferguson
• Brown v. Board of Education
• Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” Speech

It’s interesting to reflect on the importance of the Supreme Court in advancing–or delaying–progress at various times in the nation’s history. Also, it’s been 45 years since King’s seminal address. I wonder if in 45 years any of Barack Obama’s speeches or writings will make a similar list? I would bet so. It seems a stretch to think that the inaugural address of the country’s first African American president wouldn’t automatically be part of this kind of list, but maybe history will prove me wrong.

You can take our survey here.

Meanwhile, our press release “Who Is Inspiring Obama?” is getting some nice media hits today, including Forbes, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, and Yahoo.

Happy 2009, everyone. I’m pleased to start the new year with another awards announcement for Milestone Documents in American History: our title has received an Outstanding Academic Title citation from Choice magazine. Just as with the Booklist Editor’s Choice award that I announced earlier, this new award will be highlighted in the magazine’s January issue.

The Choice award is gratifying on a number of levels, but one that I’d like to mention is the academic library connection. From the outset we designed our book to appeal to both high school students and lower undergraduate students. Negotiating two divergent audiences can be tricky, because you run the danger of failing to hit the sweet spot for either audience. In our case, though, our strategy has been validated, as we’ve received rave reviews and strong sales in both high school and academic library markets. High school librarians recognize and appreciate the book’s accessible tone, uniform structure, study questions, and teachers’ activity guides tied to the National History Standards. Meanwhile, academic librarians welcome the scholarly analysis, comprehensive approach, and high editorial standards. In addition, we’ve been fortunate to see healthy sales to community college libraries, which further reinforces the usefulness of our content to a wide array of history students.

January will bring a flurry of activity, and I’ll blog it all: a new Milestone Documents newsletter, the formal publicity launch for Milestone Documents of American Leaders, new content related to Barack Obama’s speeches (including his inaugural address), the ALA Midwinter convention and the possibility of more awards for MDAH, special promotions for Black History Month, and more. Stay tuned!

Political scandals and corruption are the headlines today over at the Milestone Documents blog. First, the Doc of the Day features the articles of impeachment of Bill Clinton from 1998. Clinton, who remains a political lightening rod even today, narrowly averted impeachment by the Senate on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice. In addition, we have an “In the News” feature about the indictment of Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich on corruption charges; the U.S. attorney, Patrick Fitzgerald, believes that the governor sought to sell the open Senate seat of president-elect Barack Obama. Both posts feature links to relevant primary source documents in the two cases.

Meanwhile, over at MilestoneDocuments.com, we’ve added a new widget that offers history stories from the New York Times. The top stories at the moment include an obituary of a pioneering historian of African Americans, and a review of a book about medicine in the American West during the period of westward expansion.

What is the most influential inaugural address in U.S. history? Take our survey.

Today we’ve published our December issue of the Milestone Documents newsletter. It focuses on the period between 1870 and about 1900, which the National History Standards refer to as “Era 6: The Development of the Industrial United States.” Indeed, the period contains several critical legislative acts related to the rise of big business (and the downside thereof), including the Sherman Antitrust Act and the Interstate Commerce Act. But this era also includes some documents that don’t, shall we say, reflect the best of American ideals and spirit: the Chinese Exclusion Act and the Dawes Severalty Act come to mind. These are a good reminder to students that American history is not an unbroken string of national progress and civic rectitude; our failures as a country are reflected in our documents just as our triumphs are.

This newsletter also features our first-ever survey. It asks readers to vote on which inaugural address was the most influential in American history (think Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, Roosevelt, and Kennedy). The survey is open to the general public, so even if you’re not a newsletter subscriber, you can take the survey by clicking on this link. I’ll post the results in January.

I’m happy to announce that our Milestone Documents articles are now available for immediate download through Amazon.com. (Click here to see the results.) Not all 130-plus articles from our first reference book are loaded just yet, but they should show up in the next week or so. Of course, these articles have already been available at our own e-commerce site for a few months, but we recognized that being available on Amazon could help us reach a wider audience. The price per article is the same whether you buy at MilestoneDocuments.com or at Amazon.com: $6.99.

As always, we encourage users to check with their school or public libraries first before buying an article, as they can get the content for free if their library owns Milestone Documents in American History. Nonetheless, we hope that this level of access will be useful to the many folks out there whose libraries do not own our book (and the accompanying electronic database).