[SIGCIS-Members] Why don't real historians write popular works?

Janet Abbate abbate at vt.edu
Fri Oct 10 12:42:27 PDT 2014


Thanks for that reference, James, I just read the article. Notable for this listserv: Miller's main example of a popular book by a scholar is Jon Agar's "Turing and the Universal Machine":

"Agar is able even in short, accessible compass to avoid the pitfalls of technological determinism and convey a quite sophisticated picture of the drivers and processes of technological innovation. He also manages to be entertaining" (26). 

Janet

On Oct 8, 2014, at 3:55 10PM, James Sumner wrote:

> Those pondering the challenges and possible unwinnability of this war may possibly draw inspiration, or at least solace, from a modern classic article in the history of science: 
> 
> David Philip Miller, "The 'Sobel Effect': The Amazing Tale of How Multitudes of Popular Writers Pinched All the Best Stories in the History of Science and Became Rich and Famous while Historians Languished in Accustomed Poverty and Obscurity, and how this Transformed the World. A Reflection on a Publishing Phenomenon". Metascience 11 (2002), 185-200. http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2FBF02914819 (subscription)
> 
> Best
> James
> 
> On 08/10/2014 18:21, McMillan, William W wrote:
>> I know in some cases popular history and biography are produced by real historians, but the lively discussion on this list about the failings of popular writers in the history of computing gives me the impression that the field of battle has been left to the pithy and the superficial.  Is this community sniping from the hilltops, hoping that the writers down on the mass-market battlefield will march up with a white flag, an acknowledgment, and a pledge to respect real scholarship?
>> 
>> If real historians charged down the hill with a barrage of their own popular histories, wouldn't that overwhelm the errant?
>> 
>> Just askin'.
>> 
>> Bill
>> 
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