Summer 2013 Research

This was an unusual summer in Tennessee. I don’t recall a cooler, wetter summer in my three decades of living here. It’s certainly been more tolerable than last year’s record heat.

This summer’s research agenda was different from the past few summers. Pushing a book through the final stages of publication always proves more challenging and time-consuming than one thinks. But even with the interruption, I feel good about progress on new projects.

I spent the first couple of summer weeks finishing a draft of a chapter in my next book project, a study of the origins of the Jacksonian Democrats. I was able to finish the draft of another chapter two weeks ago, which puts me halfway through the projected six chapters.

The early part of June was spent proofing and indexing Andrew Jackson, Southerner. Thankfully, I don’t seem to have made enough mistakes for the publisher to void my contract. If you’re so inclined, you can pre-order the book from LSU Press or your favorite online bookseller. I’ll be offering a couple of free signed copies via Twitter and Facebook when the book finally comes out, so follow or like me (social media makes one sound so desperate!) to have a chance to win.

I also had the opportunity to present at this year’s SHEAR, held in St. Louis. You can read a synopsis of the panel, as well as some of the other panels I attended.

Finally, I’ve started revising a conference paper I wrote on Jackson’s 1828 presidential campaign into an article. The paper combined kinship and slavery, but based on feedback, I’m dropping the kinship angle.

I also learned that my head is abnormally large compared to 99.9% of the people I know, but that’s another story for another day.