In the current political climate,
the Internet often serves as version of the Wild West where websites of all
types abound. Unfettered by notions of truthfulness and accuracy, some sites
make all kinds of claims regarding events in history. An area that is heavily
corrupted by political rhetoric and claims of dubious facts to outright lies
thanks to a proliferation of these sites is that of the American Revolution.
Unfortunately, far too many people seek to establish their modern ideological
credentials by trying to gain legitimacy through an association with that era.
It seems that patriotism must be part of the lunatic fringe at times.
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| Todd Andrlik |
Fortunately,
there are some high quality websites available for students of history as well
as the general audience who seeks history written from factual evidence instead
of history created to suit someone’s political and or religious beliefs. One of
these websites has been created by Todd Andrlik, author of Reporting the American Revolution: Before it was History, it was News.
Andrlik, who has collected one of the largest private archives of newspapers
from the Revolutionary era, developed a website dedicated to the delivery of “impeccable,
ideally groundbreaking historical research and well-written narrative” concerning
that era. Conceived on a napkin at first, Andrlik brainstormed with Hugh T.
Harrington and developed the idea that resulted in the creation of The Journal of the American Revolution.
Anyone that has looked for
magazines dealing solely with this era will quickly discover two things. One is
that there are none and the second is that in the last several years every
attempt to create one has failed. The costs of creating a physical publication
are too high for reaching the required number of readers it takes to sustain
such an endeavor. However, as an astute observer might realize by looking at
various websites, the cost of producing an online publication are a fraction of
that expense. The real key is producing content to sustain viewers. Andrlik has
managed to accomplish that feat by allowing the readers to be the content
creators, which has been a masterful stroke of genius.
As anyone
knows who deals in academia, the mantra of the profession is publish or perish.
With a limited audience for physical books dealing with this era, the numbers
of titles that can be published each year remain small. Often, academic presses
are the major source for publication and they tend to prefer those who are
teaching in the colleges for their monographs. This has left historians who do
not write monographs, but do write articles with little room for their work few
opportunities to share their knowledge. That has also resulted in a decided
lack of accurate and highly researched information reaching the public.
Instead, the shoddy and often erroneous material whipped together to support
ideologies and beliefs has been what reached the public.
With the
introduction of The Journal of the
American Revolution in January of 2013, an outlet for magazine length
articles of high quality research existed. Andrlik’s plan bore fruition as
historians began to submit articles for publication. Today, a growing stable of
historians with a wide range of publishing experience are submitting articles
to the Journal on a regular basis.
The website is a valuable outlet for public historians as well as grad
students, academic historians, park rangers, and others who submit their work
and receive nothing more than a byline for remittance. Yet, those same authors
are adding to our knowledge of this period and gaining recognition for their
work which they never would have received had this Journal not been created.
Today the Journal reaches over 165,000 unique
views each month. Over one million unique views have occurred since the Journal began over its first two years.
Articles have been picked up for distribution in major media outlets, featured
on television, and lauded on National Public Radio. Many of the contributors
have seen their work cited by professional historians. Television and movie
producers seek these authors out for guidance concerning their programming.
Teachers have used the information in their classes and constructed interactive
learning lessons with them.
During that
process, Andrlik has increased the number of editors to seven in order to keep
up with the flow of submissions and maintain high standards of accuracy and
research. In addition to the online Journal,
Andrlik and his team have also taken the submissions and published them in annual
hardcover volumes. The second volume is slated for publication in May of 2015. These
articles range from general topics to specific concerns, book reviews,
critiques on television shows and movies, and other issues dealing with the
American Revolution. Every possible theme from the Revolution is being explored
somewhere in the Journal. Recipes
mingle with battles while spies lurk, women support their men, heroes and villains
strive to sway public opinion and win a war in the articles on this website. 
The result
is one of the best websites on the Internet that covers this era. Students of
history will not be disappointed with the articles nor will anyone with an
interest in the period. For those who seek to know what really happened in that
period, The Journal of the American
Revolution is a must visit site. The best part is that the information is
completely free. Actually, that is the second best part. The best is yet to
come as more articles are published and added to the archives. As we enter the
250th anniversary of the American Revolution, The Journal of the American Revolution is poised to be one of the
leading Internet sources of information on this period. Not too shabby for a
concept sketched out on a napkin!
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