I have been having a very full and interesting time at the AHA annual meeting in DC. I started by having lunch with a lobbyist for a philanthropic foundation who succeeded in having report language calling for the speedy publication of the Papers of the Founding Fathers added to the appropriation for the National Historic Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC), one of the two federal agencies (the other being the National Endowment for the Humanities that funds historical editing projects. Long story here, but the short version is that I am the chair of the Founding Fathers Papers, Inc., a nonprofit that helps to raise funds for the publication of the papers of Ben Franklin, George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison. I am also a Commissioner of the NHPRC, representing the American Historical Association. So I need to find a way to work with both the public agencies and the five editorial projects to complete the publications (multi-volume, and digital) in a way that serves the interests of both the public and the editions. Interesting lunch.
Then to the convention hotels, where I stalked the book exhibition area for a couple of hours, seeing friends (scholars and publishers) and getting the opportunity to glimpse the incredible harvest of new publications in the history field. Despite all the complaints about the reduction in the number of publication outlets and the decline in sales of academic books, I can only react with astonishment to the riches displayed at the Marriott Wardman Hotel. It makes one very proud of the vitality of the academic enterprise in this country, but humble at the thought of how few of these books I will actually be able to read. But I cannot wait to get at a few of them…
Then to the annual reception given by the executive director of the AHA, where I had the chance to see many friends made during my years as an officer and committee member of the Association. And I also had the chance to greet my friend Bruce Cole, the chairman of the NEH, with whom I have been working recently in connection with his efforts to supply more federal funding for digital humanities projects. I wondered, though, whether he had forgiven me for my September Constitution Day Lecture at Princeton, in which I had taken the NEH (and Bruce) to task for politicizing U.S. history in NEA programming. He has invited me to lunch, so I hope we are still on good terms. The Endowment is crucial to many of the projects I most care about — among them the Founding Fathers editions (of which Bruce is rightfully proud).
Then to a lovely dinner with a former graduate student, now a distinguished professor at a midwestern university, and soon to be the editor of a book-review journal in American history that I helped to found. Then to watch Obama’s triumph in Iowa (hoorah, I say!), and happily to bed. Cheers!
