While not agreeing entirely with Dr. Finkelman's comments, he is correct that "sometimes people write about something that no one has written about or that no one has written about in so long that there is no historiography to revise." My book Black Confederates and Afro-Yankees in Civil War Virginia (1995) is perhaps an example in this context. Its documented discussion of Afro-Confederates eventually (and due to the rise of social media, the Internet, etc.) contributed in a small way to the current toxic debate on race, slavery, the removal of Confederate statues, Black Lives Matters, the 1619 Project, etc.
Historians can't anticipate everything as the result of their writings, and I've found myself treated as "a god" by Confederate reenactors and "a crazy Uncle Tom" by liberals and leftists. Talk about being the man in the middle!
Prof. Ervin L. Jordan Jr. (Associate Professor)
Research Archivist, Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library
University of Virginia
Affiliated faculty, John L. Nau III Center for Civil War History,
University of Virginia College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences
“Racism is a scholarly pursuit, it’s taught, it’s institutionalized.” Toni Morrison (1931-2019), 1993 Nobel Prize in Literature recipient
-----Original Message-----
From: Discussion of research and writing about Virginia history <[log in to unmask]> On Behalf Of Paul Finkelman
Sent: Thursday, November 30, 2023 6:42 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Revisionist History
I must disagree with my very long time friend Brent. Sometimes people write about something that no one has written about or that no one has written about in so long that there is no historiography to revise. A case in point is a Constitutional History of Virginia, written by none other than Brent Tarter. It is not "revisionist" -- it is path breaking because no one has written such a book in so long that there is no history to revise.
Constitutional History of Virginia
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Constitutional History of Virginia
This is the only modern comprehensive constitutional history of any state, and as a history of Virgina, it is on...
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There are many other books like this. My own first book, An Imperfect Union: Slavery, Federalism and Comity (1981, reprinted 2001 by Lawbook Exchange) was a study of the many legal cases surrounding slaves who were brought to free states, and slaves who lived free states and then returned to slave states. No one had ever written on this subject, so there was nothing to revise. There are a huge number of topics like these. A good project where no one has written.
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PaulFinkelman
48 Thorndale Road
Slingerlands,NY 12159
[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
m)518-605-0296
On Thursday, November 30, 2023 at 01:21:34 PM EST, Joyce Hann <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote:
Thanks!
Sent from my iPhone
> On Nov 30, 2023, at 10:43 AM, Tarter, Brent (LVA) <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote:
>
> In several very real senses, all historical works are revisionist; otherwise, they's just repetitions of old interpretations.
>
> Every time that we discover new information we have to re-evaluate what we thought that we knew about an event in the past. And, as the Uncommonwealth blog indicates, re-evaluating old evidence often leads to changed understandings about the past.
>
> We had discussions of this in 2020 when Confederate monuments were under maximum criticism and being taken down. Neither re-interpreting nor revising is erasing or changing history. History is what happened. We can't and don't change that; but we do often-times revise how we think about the past and what historical events may mean.
>
> Back at the centennial anniversary of the American Civil War, the prevailing interpretation stressed states' rights, battlefield bravery, and death, which almost entirely ignored the most important consequences of the Civil War, which were preservation of representative democracy and of the free labor economy and the abolition of slavery; but by the time of the 150th anniversary, we acknowledged those critically important ingredients and incorporated them into our historical narratives and understandings.
>
> People shouldn't be afraid to think for themselves and should be willing to change their minds. That is what people do who continue their educations beyond the elementary level. I know. I've been reading about and studying Virginia's history for more than 50 years and have changed my mind on many things as a result of my discoveries and the scholarship of other people who have found new information or re-evaluated old information.
>
> Brent Tarter
>
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