Mount Greylock Books LLC has published my autobiography as an historian, A Life in History. Long-time readers who want to find out how the author of this blog became the historian he is will find information about the book in a new blog, ALifeinHistory.com.
My talk at the Harvard Coop last May 28 about A Life in History, can be viewed here. Enjoy! An interesting radio interview with a Denver talk show host about the book can be streamed or downloaded here.
The book can be ordered here.
I look forward to seeing your reactions. For the time being I am pinning this post. Thanks in any case to all of you for your faithful support.
Check below for more recent posts.
15 comments:
What dealer other than Greylock do you recommend? (I don't use Paypal for security reasons.)
You can also pay with a credit card on the site. The book won't be available elsewhere for a couple of months. Thanks for your interest!
Regarding your other comment, the data I gave on generational voting was as I think I said from CNN exit polls.
https://www.newcoldwar.org/roundtable-discussion-in-brussels-with-john-mearsheimer-stephen-cohen-and-katrina-vanden-heuvel/
I found discussion of above video comference on a German news site telepolis. Good luck with your book.
Professor
Thanks for having the book sent.
Starting reading it has caused me to revisit the history of the academic structure at my small liberal arts college.
It was definitely on the fringe of academia when I attended.
Part of this may have been due to its small size: it didn't have the somewhat misguided luxury of strict intradisciplinary specialization and compartmentalization seen and funded even then in larger universities, such as the one you describe at Harvard.
What I am most curious about is how it managed to go in even the opposite, multidisciplinary, direction, for a short time, when I was there; and thereafter, ending the interdisciplinary experiment after only a few years, then put in place an equally fringe collegium concept, in place of the traditional disciplinary departments almost universally seen both before and since.
I may post another note at some point on this.
All the best
Sorry! My Tardis is in the shop, so I can't follow this discussion.
re: globalisation of finance
1) Dani Rodrik's Trilemma: https://rodrik.typepad.com/dani_rodriks_weblog/2007/06/the-inescapable.html
2) The origin & build out of Neoliberal Economics: https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2018/12/neoliberalism-structure-ideology.html
Great to hear from you as always, Pat Matthews, and I hope you will check out my autobiography. And PM me if you are on facebook now, please.
Professor Kaiser,
I look forward to reading your autobiography. I was a student of yours at CMU (class of '91) and I remember some of the stories you told about driving a taxi (in Boston I believe). I'm sure you don't remember me but I was there pale punk kid with the leather jacket and chains and odd last name. I wanted to tell you that, even though I ended up as a research scientist in CS, your classes and my interactions with you have left an indelible mark on my life. Thank you for that. I wouldn't be where I am now if not for you.
As I said, I look forward to reading another book from you. Thank you for everything.
Chris Rapier
Dear Chris,
Many thanks for your very kind note. I must admit that your suspicion is correct--I don't remember you--but I'm very interested to hear exactly how I knew you and what courses you took. Please email KaiserD2@gmail.com. I'm glad you are doing so well. I am still in touch with another member of your class.
David K
Professor
I finally just read through some of the book.
Better even than I had thought. Brings to life those times somewhat in depth.
I did not know that you had married a woman who was studying back then in Oakland.
My recent remarks about Oakland, Yeshitela and the Panthers, were made before I realized a remote connection in the book! For me, Oakland was enblematic of the Panthers. No point in publishing this.
All the best
I've much enjoyed your Life in History. I was a grad student at Harvard in the 60s, and was sad to see the bad behavior of senior faculty towards those beneath them so obvious then continued thru the following decade. I too loved Cambridge as a place but disliked even more about Harvard than you did. I never had any teaching position, and got to teach only the small undergrad seminars given to most grad students. I also had worse luck with advisors than you did (David Owen died, John Clive was not very interested, even tho I was also working in British intellectual history, and Crane Brinton was senile).
Still managed to have a satisfying career as a historian at Rice, retiring just a year ago.
Prof. Wiener,
Thanks for your kind words. I thought I recognized your name and checking I see that I was right. Cambridge is, alas, much changed, although I'm still very glad to be back in this area. The wonderful Harvard Square we knew has been largely wiped out by high rents, and I suspect the pandemic will complete the job--i doubt Bartley's Burger Cottage will survive. As I may have mentioned in the book, I still use Widener as an alum--and it's a ghost town, there's hardly anyone in the stacks ever. It has been totally closed, no way to get a book, for the last few months. I feel sure that the faculty never would have stood for that 50 years ago.
I just heard your podcast with Glen Loury, and I got a huge kick out of your homage to Landmark Books. I am an avid reader of history, born in 1953, and I owned every Landmark Book in print. They clearly were the foundation for my love and interest in history. Alas, my parents did not retain them when I left home.
When I had my children, I went out looking for similar history for young readers. They did not exist. So, I went to used bookstores and bought as many Landmark Books as I could find for my children. I was and remain alarmed that no publisher is producing quality history for young readers. I remain concerned about what that portends when far fewer young readers have access to high quality books for their age group.
Fraser McAlpine
Thank you, Fraser McAlpine. I too tried to get my sons interested in them, without much success. It is very sad that there is little comparable out there today.
Professor
I took time out to dive briefly back into your book.
Sad to see the Ferguson fiasco. I had read most of House of Rothschild, and quite frankly, it had been disappointing throughout, in terms of real insights per 100 pages. Why did I bother?
I will thumb through your excellent text again soon, too much lying around here now.
All the best
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