Pages
- Photos at Flickr
- About Me
- Emergence Notes
- Last Collection Speech, Swarthmore, 2002
- Permanent Entries
- Power Can Lose
- Research Libraries Group/OCLC Programs Talk, June 2007
- Scholarly Articles
- Syllabi
- History 1L The History of Play and Leisure, Spring 2008
- History 1Y History of the Future Spring 2011
- History 61 The Production of History, Spring 2007
- History 62 The History of Reading, Spring 2007
- History 62, The History of Reading, Spring 2012
- History 80 The Whole Enchilada
- History 83 What Ifs and Might-Have-Beens, Spring 2011
- History 87 Development and Modern Africa, Spring 2007
- History 88 The Social History of Consumption, Spring 2008
- History 89 Environmental History of Africa
- History 8B History of Southern Africa, Spring 2011
- History 8B. Mfecane, Mines and Mandela: Southern Africa from 1600 to 2006, Fall 2006
- History 8C From Leopold to Kabila: The Bad Twentieth Century in Central Africa, Spring 2008
- History of the Future, Spring 2006
- The NOTES ARCHIVE
Archives
- June 2021
- January 2021
- November 2020
- September 2020
- August 2020
- July 2020
- June 2020
- May 2020
- March 2020
- February 2020
- January 2020
- October 2019
- September 2019
- August 2019
- January 2019
- October 2018
- May 2018
- February 2018
- January 2018
- November 2017
- September 2017
- August 2017
- July 2017
- May 2017
- April 2017
- March 2017
- February 2017
- January 2017
- December 2016
- November 2016
- October 2016
- September 2016
- August 2016
- July 2016
- June 2016
- May 2016
- April 2016
- March 2016
- February 2016
- January 2016
- November 2015
- October 2015
- September 2015
- August 2015
- July 2015
- June 2015
- May 2015
- April 2015
- March 2015
- February 2015
- January 2015
- November 2014
- October 2014
- September 2014
- August 2014
- July 2014
- May 2014
- March 2014
- February 2014
- January 2014
- December 2013
- November 2013
- October 2013
- September 2013
- August 2013
- July 2013
- June 2013
- May 2013
- April 2013
- March 2013
- February 2013
- January 2013
- November 2012
- October 2012
- September 2012
- August 2012
- July 2012
- June 2012
- May 2012
- April 2012
- March 2012
- February 2012
- January 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- November 2010
- October 2010
- September 2010
- August 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
- January 2008
- December 2007
- November 2007
- October 2007
- September 2007
- August 2007
- July 2007
- June 2007
- May 2007
- April 2007
- March 2007
- February 2007
- January 2007
- December 2006
- November 2006
- October 2006
- September 2006
- August 2006
- July 2006
- June 2006
- May 2006
- April 2006
- March 2006
- February 2006
- January 2006
- December 2005
- November 2005
- October 2005
- September 2005
- August 2005
- July 2005
- June 2005
- May 2005
Categories
- Academia
- Africa
- Blogging
- Books
- Cleaning Out the Augean Stables
- Consumerism, Advertising, Commodities
- Defining "Liberal Arts"
- Digital Humanities
- Domestic Life
- Food
- Games and Gaming
- Generalist's Work
- Good Quote, Bad Quote
- Grasping the Nettle
- I'm Annoyed
- Information Technology and Information Literacy
- Intellectual Property
- Miscellany
- Oath for Experts
- Oh Not Again He's Going to Tell Us It's a Complex System
- Pictures from an Institution
- Politics
- Popular Culture
- Production of History
- Sheer Raw Geekery
- Swarthmore
- The Mixed-Up Bookshelves
- Uncategorized
Meta
Author Archives: Timothy Burke
The Kid With the Hammer
A certain kind of application of social science and social science methods continues to be a really basic limit to our shared ability in modern societies to grapple with and potentially resolve serious problems. For more than a century, a … Continue reading
A Place at the Table, or the Whole Damn Dining Room?
What kind of problem is it if a substantial minority of a community’s citizens are deeply and persistently opposed to a policy that the majority support? It is, among other things, a political problem. I found myself in an argument … Continue reading
Posted in I'm Annoyed, Politics
10 Comments
A New Year
This is not the first time I’ve gone quiet on this blog simply because I was busy. Fall 2017 was in many ways the busiest semester I’ve ever had at Swarthmore: I taught two courses, I chaired my department, I … Continue reading
Posted in Academia, Blogging, Politics, Swarthmore
12 Comments
Enough
Gun control has long been one of the things I feel least intensely about in terms of issues. The reason is both that I don’t see the point of pushing it in a country where there is sufficient electoral math … Continue reading
Posted in Politics
10 Comments
Chasing Tails
I appreciate the need to feel optimism, to think this is all coming to an end soon, a good end secured by the remorseless force of law or by the rising of a core of American decency or by radical … Continue reading
Posted in Politics
5 Comments
On Harvard and Admission
Longer comment tomorrow, if I have time; and maybe also on the debate over the essay “The Case of Colonialism”. But in the interim, a quick thought on Harvard not admitting a promising student. ————————- Considering that Harvard is in … Continue reading
Game of Rewrites
As we arrive at the end of the penultimate season of Game of Thrones, much of the credit given to its showrunners for significant improvements to Martin’s original draft of the story has to be qualified by the revelation that … Continue reading
Posted in Popular Culture, Sheer Raw Geekery
1 Comment
When In Truth Did We Win Anything?
Progress is dead. In the same sense that Nietzsche spoke of the death of God, only to be habitually misunderstood by the same kinds of people that misunderstand Einstein saying that God does not play dice with the universe. The … Continue reading
Posted in Politics, Production of History
10 Comments
Recipe for Coalition: 1. Add Recognition, At Least Half a Cup.
David Atkins at Washington Monthly has a point about what progressives, Democrats and anyone else who is dismayed by the current political situation in the United States has to do. It’s entirely possible that at a grassroots level in many … Continue reading
Posted in Politics
13 Comments
On Confederate Counterfactuals
For some years, I’ve taught a course on counterfactual history. Unlike many scholarly historians, I find counterfactual history useful for a variety of reasons. For one, I accept the argument that a number of its proponents have made that all … Continue reading
Posted in Academia, Production of History
25 Comments