Blog of the Week, Vol. 1, No. 6

Note: The schedule is running behind a day this week due to unforeseen circumstances involving a lack of time due to days only having 24 hours in them.

This week we look to a blog ran by Liz Covart, who is one busy scholar. Her blog, "Uncommonplace Book" can be found at http://www.elizabethcovart.com/uncommonplace-book/. She runs a schedule that has three blog entries per week. These are Boston Historical Events on Mondays, Wednesday Link Roundups and posts about various historical concepts which are on Fridays. She is pretty good about keeping to that schedule.

I find the blog to be very interesting. It is quite informative. In fact, I read Liz's posts about creating a blog when I was developing this blog. I also have disseminated that information to others who were looking to do the same. The blog also serves as sort of a companion to Ben Franklin's World: A Podcast about Early American History. I highly recommend these podcasts to students of Early American History. They can be found at http://www.benfranklinsworld.com/.

Liz holds a Ph.D in US History with a concentration in Early America which she earned at the University of California, Davis. Her dissertation chair was Alan Taylor (just a historian with two Pulitzer Prizes).  Her articles appear in several publications including the Journal of the American Revolution and she attends multiple conferences on Early American History.

If you are planning a trip to Boston and want to see historic sights, this blog is probably a good place to find out some information on upcoming events. Her weekly links are interesting as well as are the Friday pieces. I can't keep up with everything she does so my hat is off to her. She does have one weakness which is the extremely bad misfortune of being a Boston Red Sox fan. (They play the Royals tomorrow in KC. Go Kansas City!)

So if you are looking for some information on Early American History, Boston, or just some odds and ends, Liz may have your information on her blog. It is a regular source of information on the period. Recently she had an article on monetizing digital history projects which I think is right on target with the current state of affairs regarding funding scholarly work that is not affiliated with academic institutions. That was a good article and one I hope she finds an answer to. There is a lot of historical work to be done, but finding the funds for doing it is probably the biggest obstacle to doing it.

Again, Uncommonplace Book is a very well ran and highly informative blog for the study of history. The podcasts at Ben Franklin's World are first rate and also worth your time and even money should it come down to that. Give the blog a visit and see for yourself!