Monday, August 16, 2004
Throwin' a rod
By The Erudite Redneck
That clangin’ and bangin’ in the background is my brain throwin’ a rod. After 20 months of studyin’ almost exclusively American history – American, American Indian, Oklahoma, Southern and Western – I am fixin’ to shift gears so far and so fast it will hurt.
My master’s thesis has to do with Indian Territory from 1849 to early 1852 – and I’ll leave it at that for fear of really gettin’ started on it.
My only seminar lately was on the American West, which had me whup up a pretty good paper on how the Indian newspapers in Indian Territory covered, and commented on, Custer’s demise, and the events and issues leading to it and past it, in 1876. A scholarly journal is givin’ it a looksee
Over my left shoulder are shelf after shelf of books and copies of primary documents having to do with … the South, the West and Indian Territory. And redneck doodads and souvenirs like the proud ceramic fightin’ cock wearin’ a Confederate battle flag, a coffee mug in the likeness of a Hereford bull head, and a brass spittoon not used lately, but a reminder of the habit I had for 28 years. (I’m 40. Do the math. Walt Garrison will burn in hell for enticing me and so many other young’uns into starting dipping in the ‘70s).
And now this: My final graduate seminar, waaayy faaarr removed from the past two years of study and sort of outside my comfort zone: The Reformation.
The book I’m readin’ now is Destiny Road: The Gila Trail and the Opening of the Southwest, a 1973 monograph by Odie B. Faulk, who was then chairman of the history department at Oklahoma State University. Excellent, and right up my alley:
It talks about the early adventurers who stumbled across the desert Southwest from Texas to California, blazing the trail for the gold-lusting '49ers, then the Butterfield Trail and others – critical to tying the brand-new state of California to the rest of the country.
California could have developed as the anchor of a separate nation, or could have been reclaimed by Spain, or Mexico, claimed by Russia, if not for the Gila Trail and its trail and rail descendants. What a great read. What great context for understanding how this far-flung country came together. It didn’t just happen.
I’ll finish Destiny Road today or tomorrow, then – and here’s where the real clangin’ and bangin’ will commence – I’ll start on the stack of books I’ll use in The Reformation seminar, which starts a week from today for the fall semester:
First, I’ll read or heavily skim a few books not required by the class, but stuff I personally want to have better familiarity with before I get to the meat of the matter:
John Dillenberger, ed., Martin Luther: Selections from His Writings (Garden City, New York: Anchor Books, 1961); C. Warren Hollister and Judith M. Bennett, Medieval Europe: a Short History, 9th. ed (Boston: McGraw Hill, 1964-2002); and an oldie but a goody, Will Durant, The Reformation, vol 6 of The Story of Civilization series (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1957).
That’s to get me up to speed – and no, I won’t “read” all of that in the next week. I am human. I will read the medieval book, pick and choose topics that interest me in the Martin Luther book, and skim the Durant book. Come next Monday, though, is the real deal, with the following books, which I am almost sure I’ll read most of in the next few months, among others:
Richard Bonney, The European Dynastic States 1494-1660 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991); Donald J. Wilcox, In Search of God & Self: Renaissance and Reformation Thought (Prospect Heights, Illinois, 1987; reprint, New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1975); Robert Bucholz and Newton Key, Early Modern England 1485-1714: a Narrative History (Malden, Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishing, 2004).
Excellent reading list. Totally unlike anything I’ve read the past two years. Not since an academic sojourn through ancient-to-modern China in the spring of ought-2 have I been so far outside my want-to zone.
It’ll be good for me. I reckon I’ll have to be more erudite than redneck this semester.
Oh, pardon me, what I meant to say was: It appears as if erudition will edge out my lingering rustic notions the next few months.
Like hell. Yeehaw. My brain -- even with the lifters rattlin’ -- is big enough for me to handle this little ol’ class and not get too far above my raisin.’
END
That clangin’ and bangin’ in the background is my brain throwin’ a rod. After 20 months of studyin’ almost exclusively American history – American, American Indian, Oklahoma, Southern and Western – I am fixin’ to shift gears so far and so fast it will hurt.
My master’s thesis has to do with Indian Territory from 1849 to early 1852 – and I’ll leave it at that for fear of really gettin’ started on it.
My only seminar lately was on the American West, which had me whup up a pretty good paper on how the Indian newspapers in Indian Territory covered, and commented on, Custer’s demise, and the events and issues leading to it and past it, in 1876. A scholarly journal is givin’ it a looksee
Over my left shoulder are shelf after shelf of books and copies of primary documents having to do with … the South, the West and Indian Territory. And redneck doodads and souvenirs like the proud ceramic fightin’ cock wearin’ a Confederate battle flag, a coffee mug in the likeness of a Hereford bull head, and a brass spittoon not used lately, but a reminder of the habit I had for 28 years. (I’m 40. Do the math. Walt Garrison will burn in hell for enticing me and so many other young’uns into starting dipping in the ‘70s).
And now this: My final graduate seminar, waaayy faaarr removed from the past two years of study and sort of outside my comfort zone: The Reformation.
The book I’m readin’ now is Destiny Road: The Gila Trail and the Opening of the Southwest, a 1973 monograph by Odie B. Faulk, who was then chairman of the history department at Oklahoma State University. Excellent, and right up my alley:
It talks about the early adventurers who stumbled across the desert Southwest from Texas to California, blazing the trail for the gold-lusting '49ers, then the Butterfield Trail and others – critical to tying the brand-new state of California to the rest of the country.
California could have developed as the anchor of a separate nation, or could have been reclaimed by Spain, or Mexico, claimed by Russia, if not for the Gila Trail and its trail and rail descendants. What a great read. What great context for understanding how this far-flung country came together. It didn’t just happen.
I’ll finish Destiny Road today or tomorrow, then – and here’s where the real clangin’ and bangin’ will commence – I’ll start on the stack of books I’ll use in The Reformation seminar, which starts a week from today for the fall semester:
First, I’ll read or heavily skim a few books not required by the class, but stuff I personally want to have better familiarity with before I get to the meat of the matter:
John Dillenberger, ed., Martin Luther: Selections from His Writings (Garden City, New York: Anchor Books, 1961); C. Warren Hollister and Judith M. Bennett, Medieval Europe: a Short History, 9th. ed (Boston: McGraw Hill, 1964-2002); and an oldie but a goody, Will Durant, The Reformation, vol 6 of The Story of Civilization series (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1957).
That’s to get me up to speed – and no, I won’t “read” all of that in the next week. I am human. I will read the medieval book, pick and choose topics that interest me in the Martin Luther book, and skim the Durant book. Come next Monday, though, is the real deal, with the following books, which I am almost sure I’ll read most of in the next few months, among others:
Richard Bonney, The European Dynastic States 1494-1660 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991); Donald J. Wilcox, In Search of God & Self: Renaissance and Reformation Thought (Prospect Heights, Illinois, 1987; reprint, New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1975); Robert Bucholz and Newton Key, Early Modern England 1485-1714: a Narrative History (Malden, Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishing, 2004).
Excellent reading list. Totally unlike anything I’ve read the past two years. Not since an academic sojourn through ancient-to-modern China in the spring of ought-2 have I been so far outside my want-to zone.
It’ll be good for me. I reckon I’ll have to be more erudite than redneck this semester.
Oh, pardon me, what I meant to say was: It appears as if erudition will edge out my lingering rustic notions the next few months.
Like hell. Yeehaw. My brain -- even with the lifters rattlin’ -- is big enough for me to handle this little ol’ class and not get too far above my raisin.’
END
Comments:
<< Home
When you finally finish, I'm buying you a stack of comic books and a Grape Nehi. Just call it counter-cultural training.
Wait a minute..did you say, "...a habit I had..."?? Do I understand correctly that you have quit dipping? I don't remember hell freezing over! Geez, why am I always the last to know anything?
Let me know what you think of the Martin Luther book. My son has read 3 of them on him, but I don't recall that one.
Let me know what you think of the Martin Luther book. My son has read 3 of them on him, but I don't recall that one.
"Had." My last dip was July 6, 2003. Or maybe it was July 5. Anyway, July 6 is my "quit date." My wife quit smoking at the same time. I am still, however, on the nicotine gum. And I still smoke cigars some. When I get ready to quit the cigars, I'll be able to quit the gum, I think. But right now, the cigars make me want to dip, but I don't, because of the gum. It ain't the best, I know, but it beats dipping. ... Not long after, my wife, the sweetie, came home from Wal-Mart with a tube of plastic ups she'd found on sale and said, "Hey, I bought you some spit cups -- oh. ..." It's almost a damn shame to no longer be able to avail myself of such forward-thinkin' in a woman! :-)
It's been over a year? Good for you! I'm trying to picture you without a spit cup in your hand, and having a little trouble with it :), but I'm happy you did it.
Post a Comment
<< Home
