tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-47506440411820936752023-11-16T06:03:14.208-08:00The Race into Space - reassessing EisenhowerDeveloping a PhD thesis around Ike's policy and actions on outer space.Mark Shanahanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06582169025678103551noreply@blogger.comBlogger103125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4750644041182093675.post-75148947785899686082014-12-31T12:52:00.000-08:002014-12-31T13:04:02.429-08:00Life on earth...after the PhDSome time last year I stopped updating this blog. It was the time when the serious business of getting my PhD thesis written-up, edited and submitted finally kicked in. It's nice to be able to return to the blog and complete it.<br />
<br />
On September 24 this year, I submitted my thesis - all 94,810 words + bibliography. On December 12, I defended my thesis - <i>Eisenhower's Parallel Track</i> at Brunel University<i>. </i>It was a successful defence. I am now Dr. Shanahan.<br />
<br />
My last seven years has been spent as a 40-something and then 50 year old student. I'm a very different person now to the frustrated researcher who started this process. Where the future will take me, I don't yet know. But I'm looking forward to it.<br />
<br />
The research thesis I eventually produced is very different from the point at which I began. My abstract says:<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Century Schoolbook",serif;"><i>Historians
of the early space age have established a norm whereby President Eisenhower's
actions are judged solely as a response to the launch of the Sputnik satellite,
and are indicative of a passive, negative presidency. His low-key actions are
seen merely as a prelude to the US triumph in space in the 1960s. This study
presents an alternative view showing that Eisenhower’s space policy was not a
reaction to the heavily-propagandised Soviet satellite launches, or even the
effect they caused in the US political and military elites, but the
continuation of a strategic track. In so doing, it also contributes to the
reassessment of the wider Eisenhower presidency. </i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Century Schoolbook",serif;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Century Schoolbook",serif;"><i>Having assessed the
development of three intersecting discourses: Eisenhower as president; the genesis
of the US space programme; and developments in Cold War US reconnaissance, this
thesis charts Eisenhower’s influence both on the ICBM and reconnaissance
programmes and his support for a non-military approach to the International
Geophysical Year. These actions provided the basis for his space policy for the
remainder of his presidency. </i></span><i style="font-family: 'Century Schoolbook', serif; line-height: 150%;">The following chapters show that Sputnik had no
impact on the policies already in place and highlight Eisenhower’s pragmatic
activism in enabling the implementation of these policies by a carefully-chosen
group of expert ‘helping hands’. </i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<i style="font-family: 'Century Schoolbook', serif; line-height: 150%;"><br /></i></div>
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<i style="font-family: 'Century Schoolbook', serif; line-height: 150%;">This study delivers a new interpretation of
Eisenhower’s actions. It argues that he was operating on a parallel track that
started with the Castle H-bomb tests; developed through the
CIA's reconnaissance efforts and was distilled in the Aeronautics and
Space Act of 1958. This set a policy for US involvement in outer space that
matched Eisenhower’s desire for a balanced budget and fundamental belief
in maintaining peace. By challenging the orthodox view, this paper shows
that President Eisenhower’s space policy actions were strategic steps that
provided a logical next step for both civilian and military space programmes at
the completion of the International Geophysical Year.</i></div>
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<i style="font-family: 'Century Schoolbook', serif; line-height: 150%;"><br /></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Century Schoolbook', serif; line-height: 150%;">For the last seven years I've been reading books about space; about politics; about reconnaissance and about missiles that have all fed the PhD research. It was a great pleasure to take them all down to Reading where I now teach and park them on my office shelves. They'll re-emerge in the coming months as portions of the thesis become articles and the bones of a monograph. Today I bought a space book purely for the fun of reading it. Chris Hadfield, I'm thoroughly looking forward to leafing my way through <i>An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth. </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Century Schoolbook', serif; line-height: 150%;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="font-family: Century Schoolbook, serif;">Onwards and Upwards. </span></div>
Mark Shanahanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06582169025678103551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4750644041182093675.post-8108848632299093182013-09-19T08:36:00.000-07:002013-09-19T08:36:09.119-07:00American voices: seeking opinions on key questions<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0NzulL368Rp7eIAGDsVZrxQHnBvJ20YUuoyRZlsghxkk4tsqFyBrgDC6Ke2F8t3JCPr-vq_4eOsQyD5c1nUqAtGdkR1mm6VJ43G8xumPmc2vBoN3D8_pkUXtNOLMbZMho9pRbuZfOuVk/s1600/reading-logo.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0NzulL368Rp7eIAGDsVZrxQHnBvJ20YUuoyRZlsghxkk4tsqFyBrgDC6Ke2F8t3JCPr-vq_4eOsQyD5c1nUqAtGdkR1mm6VJ43G8xumPmc2vBoN3D8_pkUXtNOLMbZMho9pRbuZfOuVk/s1600/reading-logo.gif" /></a></div>
I wrote last week that I'm looking for some Americans with opinions to take part in preparing the content for a course I'm teaching at the University of Reading this year (it's pronounced 'Redding' - it's not a pretentious book-based learning establishment!). As I plough on preparing my lectures and seminars for the <strong>American Government</strong> course , the issues I'd like some American Voice comments on are emerging. At a high level, the immediate ones are:<br />
<br />
<strong>Congress: </strong><br />
<strong></strong><br />
<ul>
<li>How do you regard Congress?</li>
<li> Does it represent your aims?</li>
<li> How effective is it in delivering on its power of oversight?</li>
<li> Is the balance right between Congress and the President?</li>
</ul>
<br />
<strong>The Presidency</strong><br />
<strong></strong><br />
<ul>
<li>Are you comfortable with the way the President uses his powers?</li>
<li>How would you score the current presidency out of 10 - and why?</li>
<li>Who is/was the USA's greatest president - and why?</li>
<li>Who's at the bottom of the Presidential poll for you - and why|</li>
<li>Do you believe presidential power is in decline? Why/why not?</li>
<li>Who will be the white House's next incumbent and why?</li>
</ul>
<strong>The Supreme Court</strong><br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Do you believe Americans understand the role that the Supreme Court plays in government today?</li>
<li>Is the Court doing a good job? Why/why not?</li>
<li>Inverting Alexander Hamilton, some commentators regard the Supreme Court as the most dangerous and least democratic aspect of US government today. Is that a fair assessment? Why/why not?</li>
</ul>
<strong>Political Parties and elections</strong><br />
<strong></strong><br />
<ul>
<li>How effective do you feel the two party system is in US politics?</li>
<li>In your opinion, what unites and what divides each of the US' two main parties?</li>
<li>What do the Republicans need to do to regain the White House?</li>
<li>What do the Democrats need to do to retain the White House?</li>
<li>Why is there so often a disconnect between voting patterns at local/State/Congressional and presidential levels? </li>
<li>Can one party ever dominate across the US political spectrum?</li>
</ul>
<strong>Issues</strong><br />
<strong></strong><br />
<ul>
<li>What effect has sequestration had on your views on the current US political situation?</li>
<li>Do you believe the wrangling over healthcare reform has enhanced or damaged both the President and Congressional opponents?</li>
<li>What impact is Syria having on the standing of the President and Congress?</li>
<li>Have recent debates around gay marriage and also voting rights affected your view of the Supreme Court?</li>
</ul>
<strong>Federalism</strong><br />
<strong></strong><br />
<ul>
<li>Why are so many Americans often so critical of 'big government'?</li>
</ul>
<strong>Media</strong><br />
<ul>
<li>What role does the media play in US politics today?</li>
<li>Do you feel the media is a power for good in US politics? Why/why not?</li>
<li>Is social media affecting today's political scene - and if so, how?</li>
</ul>
<strong>Capital punishment</strong><br />
<strong></strong><br />
<ul>
<li>What's your view on the death penalty - is it right that the US retains the right to execute wrongdoers?</li>
</ul>
<strong>Gun control</strong><br />
<strong></strong><br />
<ul>
<li>What's your view on gun control?</li>
<li>Why is it such a contentious issue in US politics?</li>
<li>Will events such as Aurora, Newtown or the Navy Yard shootings have any effect politically?</li>
</ul>
<strong>Lobbying</strong><br />
<strong></strong><br />
<ul>
<li>Which interest groups have the greatest impact on US politics, and why?</li>
<li>Do interest groups enhance or detract from the US political scene - why and how?</li>
</ul>
<strong>Civil rights</strong><br />
<ul>
<li>Do you believe the US is now a fair and equitable society for all? Why/why not?</li>
</ul>
<strong>Religion</strong><br />
<ul>
<li>How much power and influence does religion have in US politics?</li>
<li>Is that power on the rise or decline?</li>
<li>Does its rise or decline matter?</li>
</ul>
<strong>America and the World</strong><br />
<ul>
<li>What effect, if any, do you feel that current US politics has on the standing of the nation in the world?</li>
<li>Does the rest of the world's view of the US actually matter? Why/why not?</li>
</ul>
Would you be willing to answer these questions and share your views with a bunch of Reading University second year undergrads? <br />
<br />
No responses need to be attributed fully - I'm looking at something like 'Fred, a store owner from Florida said...' - just enough to give the students a sense of whose opinion they're hearing.<br />
<br />
I'm very happy to take written responses to all or any of the questions - or, for the more daring, sound or even movie files. <br />
<br />
Interested? If you'd like to find out more or are even tentatively interested in taking part, email me at <a href="mailto:m.j.shanahan@reading.ac.uk">m.j.shanahan@reading.ac.uk</a> and I can fill you in on the details<br />
<br />
<strong></strong><br />
<strong></strong>Mark Shanahanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06582169025678103551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4750644041182093675.post-79481816809572132412013-09-11T09:05:00.001-07:002013-09-11T09:05:38.339-07:00In search of American Voices<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLxx97f9NpXZURwAuBgJywbC5pYO_yE3graEeATL2i2Q4CeJeIGJQR2JbHyqYADzeoc7DK62SHa-z6oH6zdB1MLQy1r8ldVwE8fBwKyPAmGXPdLaxDbJ_MXiJoDj0NqWeTOiBe0OfWLH8/s1600/stay+connected.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLxx97f9NpXZURwAuBgJywbC5pYO_yE3graEeATL2i2Q4CeJeIGJQR2JbHyqYADzeoc7DK62SHa-z6oH6zdB1MLQy1r8ldVwE8fBwKyPAmGXPdLaxDbJ_MXiJoDj0NqWeTOiBe0OfWLH8/s1600/stay+connected.jpg" /></a></div>
It is, perhaps, fitting that on this 9/11 anniversary I've been planning content for my up-coming American Government course. I'll be teaching the L2 undergrad course at Reading University from next month, covering the usual bases - the separation of powers; who does what and how; the Constitution; parties and elections; 'big government'; States' Rights; interest groups; the media; capital punishment; civil rights; social policy and religion.<br />
<br />
I have 66 eager undergrads signed up for the course. Most are British; the rest Continental European and very few have spent any time at all in the US.<br />
<br />
My experience of teaching US politics over the last few years with similar groups is that they're generally quite liberal and find it easy to be antagonistic towards the US - while admiring its business ethics, much of its culture and many of its individuals. It's an odd mix that's often based on kittle understanding that US culture is quite different from ours in Europe. <br />
<br />
I'm hoping to aid the understanding of my students a little more this year by introducing some 'American Voices' into the lectures. Beyond the usual textbook and assigned scholarly reading, I'd love students to hear from 'real' Americans who live and breathe the impacts of US political decision making every day. <br />
<br />
I would like them to hear views on the death penalty and gun control for instance from the kinds of articulate, erudite Americans I've spoken to over the years; the kinds who've shared their views with me on both sides of the debate. I'd like my students to understand why the Constitution matters so much, given that in the UK we have no written constitution and seem to have a much more malleable view of constitutionally-based issues politicking. <br />
<br />
I would love to know how gay marriage and Obamacare are playing in Peoria. It would be great to find out what being 'libertarian' really means to Joe from LA or Jessie from Idaho and my students would gain a great insight from understanding why and how religion matters if you're growing up in the Heartland. <br />
<br />
I'll be putting out some feelers to my own US contacts over the next few weeks - I'd love to collect some audio files, perhaps some very basic videos or even have someone Skype direct into my class. But I'm very open to speaking to new contacts and building a range of real American Voices into my classes. <br />
<br />
In many ways there appears to be a widening gap between the US and Europe. It can be narrowed through mutual understanding - and the best people to do the narrowing are the next generation of leaders and influencers.<br />
<br />
So, if you're an American willing to engage with some 19-20 year old British students about one or more aspects of US politics, please get in touch. You can email me at <a href="mailto:m.j.shanahan@reading.ac.uk">m.j.shanahan@reading.ac.uk</a><br />
<br />
Thanks in anticipation for your helpMark Shanahanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06582169025678103551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4750644041182093675.post-29266202443905860802013-07-09T06:41:00.000-07:002013-07-09T06:41:19.231-07:00When writing, never stop reading<img height="253" src="http://i.ebayimg.com/t/PRESIDENT-DWIGHT-D-EISENHOWER-VISITS-CAPE-CANAVERAL-8X10-PHOTO-EP-427-/00/s/NDg4WDYxNA==/$T2eC16RHJIYE9qUcOQF3BQkqcSyKT!~~60_35.JPG" width="320" />The thesis is hovering around 43,000 words at the moment. I write a bit, read it back, chop, pinch, style and rephrase. The intro, chapters three and four and part of chapter one are now there, with plans for all the other pieces of the jigsaw.<br />
<br />
I've had good feedback on the two completed chapter drafts from the wise and exceedingly kind <a href="http://authors.simonandschuster.com/David-A-Nichols/42263792">Dave Nichols</a>, which will help strip out some of the chaff from the wheat (although the word count may well take a knock). In having a paper accepted for publication, I've also received good feedback from <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Elusive-Victories-The-American-Presidency/dp/0199860939">Andy Polsky</a> at <a href="http://www.roosevelthouse.hunter.cuny.edu/">Hunter College, CUNY</a>. Andy's editing the book I'll be published in, and sent back his comments with the advice: "Probably you will feel a little bruised and battered after you see the edits.
Ice helps, either applied directly or consumed in a stiff drink, American-style."<br />
<br />
Actually, his editing was crisp, his cuts made sense - and other than the Americanization of some of my very British observation, we have very little to argue over. Compared to the evisceration I've seen applied to other colleagues' work by 'helpful editors', Andy's shaping of my work was relatively mild and positively beneficial. <br />
<br />
Anyway, while I write, I still read. At the moment, I'm working my way through Jeffrey Frank's <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ike-Dick-Portrait-Political-Marriage/dp/1416587012/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1373375885&sr=8-1&keywords=ike+and+dick">'Ike and Dick'</a> which is not bad on Nixon, but presents a rather hackneyed caricature of President Eisenhower. In fact, Frank might as well have called it 'Ike and Tina Turner' for all it contains that's new, interesting or particularly realistic about POTUS 34.<br />
<br />
As I'm teaching an <a href="http://www.citylit.ac.uk/courses/Humanities_and_social_studies/History_and_politics/Eisenhower%3A_the_1950s_and_the_forgotten_President/HH427">Eisenhower summer school</a> at the moment, I'm also re-reading Dave Nichols' excellent <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Matter-Justice-Eisenhower-Beginning-Revolution/dp/1416541500/ref=tmm_hrd_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1373376384&sr=1-2">'A Matter of Justice'</a>. In terms of Eisenhower, this is everything that Mr Frank's book isn't. While it's not as well known a title as Nichols' study on Ike and Suez, <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Eisenhower-1956-Presidents-Crisis--Suez-Brink/dp/1439139342/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1373376534&sr=1-1&keywords=Eisenhower+1956">'Eisenhower: 1956'</a>, it's a thoughtful, incisive and meticulously researched study that recognises that the 1950s were very different from the 1960s, and that Eisenhower's cautious steps forward towards ending racial inequality were very necessary in enabling the groundswell for change of the Kennedy/Johnson presidencies. <br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
Having spoken at the Ike Reconsidered conference back in March, which was organised by Andy Polsky, it's perhaps not surprising that I'm also reading his <a href="http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2012-08-04/opinions/35493891_1_war-powers-wartime-presidents-civil-war">'Elusive Victories: The American Presidency at War.'</a> It's a work that those currently in the White House and Pentagon would do well to read on their holidays this summer. </div>
Mark Shanahanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06582169025678103551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4750644041182093675.post-28820538223529810802013-06-11T06:22:00.001-07:002013-06-11T06:22:34.761-07:00The big push starts hereThe good news is that last week, my PhD research was 'Confirmed'. In Brunel terms, that means it has cleared the last internal gate and the next steps are submission and my external viva. Being grilled for around 90 minutes last week by two internal examiners (plus my two supervisors chipping in on occasion) resulted in my hypothesis being seem as viable; my methodology sound, my timeline realistic and my writing to date (approaching 40,000 words) up to the expected standard. <br />
<br />
I didn't by any means nail the internal viva - the feedback was that I was still, in part, too journalistic, while paradoxically, not being sufficiently sharp on how my work will make a significant contribution to Eisenhower/early space scholarship. I <em>thought</em> I was being both polite and measured, and was desperately attempting to avoid the accusation of 'showboating' that I've been subject to before. It seems like I'd dialled down my performance just a notch too far. <br />
<br />
Still, the whole point of the confirmation hearing is to get practice for the external event. I've learned quite a lot, and hope I'll be able to apply it when the time comes - some time in 2014. <br />
<br />
The bad news is there's no time to rest on my laurels. On the way up, Confirmation feels like a big thing. Once through it, one realises it qualifies the Confirmed candidate for nothing. I have one core section out of three written and revised. I've started on the major context piece. The consequences are still some way off. I have anything from 40,000-60,000 words still to craft, polish and set.<br />
<br />
It seemed that all my hard work was leading up to last Friday's event. The reality is: the really hard work starts now. Mark Shanahanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06582169025678103551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4750644041182093675.post-21052861735171699202013-04-18T10:17:00.001-07:002013-04-18T10:17:47.348-07:00I like Ike - and when it comes to space, I'm not so keen on JFK<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
This should be a rather less muffled version of my first attempt at TV punditry. <br />
<br />Mark Shanahanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06582169025678103551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4750644041182093675.post-14956782889872218652013-03-30T15:15:00.000-07:002013-03-30T15:15:03.625-07:00Walter Cronkite, Patrick Moore and James Burke can rest easy<a data-ved="0CAUQjRw" href="http://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&frm=1&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&docid=rOPd-8Yyf2PJSM&tbnid=D3ymenm4jJNdLM:&ved=0CAUQjRw&url=http%3A%2F%2Ftekgnostics.blogspot.com%2F2011_06_12_archive.html&ei=gWNXUYamEYfI0QWWzYD4CA&bvm=bv.44442042,d.d2k&psig=AFQjCNFBgMcIZHXwn8O3B1D_FEI6d5AhBg&ust=1364767956792307" id="irc_mil" style="border: 0px currentColor; clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img height="200" id="irc_mi" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjf9_ibYgluCq0EMxozonKtf4AYd2QNYedo7EdXsQ5Punrd_4T0-H9pzbL2_qACck4yiftZUvmKOpYvBm2Exhu5YMEZaEUyOja1HbC3DBQO4vWzFkhnxcTiJW9Vdw8f_gLPeLR6XhnmCw/s200/sputnik1.gif" style="margin-top: 0px;" width="175" /></a>I had an interview filmed at the recent <a href="http://roosevelthouse.hunter.cuny.edu/ike/academic-conference/">Ike Reconsidered Conference</a>. Somehow, I think my days as a TV pundit will be brief - though kudos to the editors for actually getting some sense out of my musings. You can see me<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCtj_BDTR4M"> here</a>. Mark Shanahanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06582169025678103551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4750644041182093675.post-17239460543090849802013-03-15T09:28:00.000-07:002013-03-15T09:28:41.470-07:00US Diary - reflectionsIt's a week now since the <a href="http://roosevelthouse.hunter.cuny.edu/ike/academic-conference/">'Ike Reconsidered'</a> Conference in New York, and I've actually been back in the UK since Monday. It worked out cheaper to stay in the US 'til Sunday, so I enjoyed the great pleasure at the end of the trip of a free day in New York City. The feedback from the conference has been great - my presentation went down well and my work seems to have picked up an appreciative audience. To an extent, I was preaching to the Choir, but it's a reall buzz to get a positive response to my thoughts on Ike from a very knowledgeable crowd. <br />
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As is my great pleasure, I set out relatively early on Saturday morning and just walked: miles and miles, stopping to browse in a Barnes and Noble; taking a look in the wonderful Art Deco lobby of the <a href="http://www.tishmanspeyer.com/properties#!/properties/chrysler-center">Chrysler Building</a> and skirting the rather ghastly Times Square.<br />
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Given my history leanings, I'd always wanted to visit the <a href="http://www.intrepidmuseum.org/">USS Intrepid</a>, nudged up to the edge of Hell's Kitchen on the Hudson River. I spent a good couple of hours looking round the WW2 carrier and its aircraft displays. <br />
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After that, it was back to Times Square to try and get hold of a ticket for one of the major Broadway Shows. The queues were a killer, so I headed direct to the Richard Rogers Theatre and bought a ticket for <a href="http://www.catonahottinroofbroadway.com/">Cat on a Hot Tin Roof</a>. <br />
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The theatre, which feels just a bit run down, wasn't quite full, and the play has had mixed reviews. But, aside from Ciaran Hinds' Big Daddy starting with a significantly more Belfast than Southern USA accent, and Scarlett Johansson gabbling a few too many of her early lines upstage, I thought the performance was mesmerising. Back at the hotel about 15 hours after setting out for the day, I still couldn't get to sleep.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqx6N67LG3JuOmgEHb4nmsPcI8W3WBw1YbRnrwtb7neYkVddOmEVQkGZm-mxd5ySlW9ux1pOGF9DN0b1uvd1BdXJwbSSMSMDMPDqvEHAO0dqeQ21pEtUk5yQfZfUecGXeJR_iL3rZ7BtM/s1600/Times+Square.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqx6N67LG3JuOmgEHb4nmsPcI8W3WBw1YbRnrwtb7neYkVddOmEVQkGZm-mxd5ySlW9ux1pOGF9DN0b1uvd1BdXJwbSSMSMDMPDqvEHAO0dqeQ21pEtUk5yQfZfUecGXeJR_iL3rZ7BtM/s200/Times+Square.jpg" width="150" /></a>Sunday morning, I breakfasted with the estimable <a href="http://authors.simonandschuster.com/David-A-Nichols/42263792/biography">Dave Nichols</a> before we shared a cab to Penn Station and I started my trip home - via DC. My journey back was ridiculously expensive, thanks to getting a cab from Washington's Union station out to Dulles (when's the subway finally due to reach the airport?), but it would be churlish to complain about a terrific week including great research, a superb conference - and the chance to see Scarlett Johansson looking deliciously sultry. Mark Shanahanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06582169025678103551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4750644041182093675.post-40012290149015240182013-03-09T05:52:00.000-08:002013-03-12T02:55:27.368-07:00Reconsidering Ike<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Sometimes you just get a sense that everything that you've done in your research is leading to one day; to one event; to one moment. On Thursday, I reached that moment. The morning was tough. The Ike Reconsidered Conference didn't start until 2pm and I wasn't needed there until 1.30 (I was on the first panel). As has been the habit of the week, I was awake really early and watched the sleet drift between the high rises of Lexington Avenue. I walked to find where I needed to be later in the day, catching myself thinking of the slight unreality of being on Park Avenue when my research life resides in Uxbridge. I breakfasted at a diner, smirking wryly at its name : 'Heaven' and taking note that the hard-working New Yorkers whisking coffee, pancakes, eggs, toast and the rest between, around and to the tables had their roots in South Asia, not in the waves of original immigrants that have made NYC so unique. It was good to see: this city evolves. <br />
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The rest of the morning is spent pacing my room. Checking and rechecking my notes. Everything about me is nervous. All I can do properly is pace. <br />
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Finally, suited and booted, I headed for The Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute. Roosevelt House - yes, where FDR and Eleanor lived along with his mother Sara, a matching pair of townhouses now owned by Hunter College and restored as a teaching and conference venue. The great and the good trooped in: academics; a few students; a lot of grey hair and the odd Eisenhower, a Brownell and even a guru or two. As I took my place in the front row, a small man moving slowly with a wheeled frame and a carer arrived and sat behind me: Fred Greenstein: guru.<br />
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So, that first panel. Faced by more Eisenhower talent in one room than I've encountered in the past four years (that's not true: it's more Ike interest and knowledge than I've encountered in my life). Faced by more undistilled Eisenhower expertise than I'm ever likely to see again. Faced by TV cameras, a stills man and a see of expectant faces. I wasn't too worried. Ben Greene was going first. I could sit back for a little while, gather my thoughts and learn. So Mike Desch, chair of Political Science at Notre Dame, takes the podium and introduces us...and switches the order. Now I'm first. The Conference's first speaker. The token Brit. The warm up act before the serious business takes over. <br />
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I grab my notes and bottle of water and head for the podium. There's a little added tension as the organisers fail at first to load my slides. Then I'm off. 12 minutes. I'll be counted down at five and two. Once I'm running, I'm fine. Professional habits take over. There are a couple of half-jokes, well received. It's boo Kennedy and hurrah Ike. I conclude. There's applause and smiling faces in the front row. I sit down. Have I passed the test? Am I now in the Eisenhower club?<br />
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My next moments of fear: the discussants stand to forensically chew over our papers. I've been the first of three and the first discussant is Yanek Mieczkowski who has just published a book seemingly at the heart of my area. He's going to slaughter me. He'll expose my thin veneer of knowledge; my charlatan status as interloper in the academic world. But he's kind. He's insightful. He's generous - he 'gets' what I'm trying to do. And then Mike Desch. He has criticisms and they're justified, but he picks out lines of the writing for comment. After years of being warned to curb my 'purple prose' (and God knows, I tell my students the same), here's a political scientist rolling a phrase in his mouth like a fine wine. And it's my phrase and it's deepest ruby red. <br />
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The questions come - and they come to me. And I know the answers. This is working. I'm actually in my element and I can deal with this. I'm not out on a limb. My paper dovetails with those of Ben and Zuoyue. Clever organisers. I'm less good in the sum-up, undercutting my own point. But I still leave the stage on a high. Was it any good? I haven't checked back yet. Apparently it'll be preserved for posterity <a href="http://www.livestream.com/roosevelthouse/ike-reconsiered/videos/13294302">here</a>.<br />
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At the break, people come up to me and say how much they enjoyed the paper. Even guru Fred. I can't help grinning. The event continues and the calibre of speaker and quality of presentation keeps on climbing. This is my great opportunity to sit at the feet of real Eisenhower knowledge and absorb.<br />
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We're well fed with the great and the good of Hunter and the - it has to be said - dwindling Eisenhower community. The night is about straight backed men and women who fought Washington's good fight - alongside or opposed to the General. There aren't too many left. I cherish their experience. <br />
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Yesterday was more of the same - but this time I could just sit back and enjoy. David Eisenhower is both genial and wise (and looks scarily like his grandfather). Ann Brownell adds colour and context. I record a short video piece at lunchtime - I hope the editing is kind. <br />
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Dave Nichols, perhaps the foremost Eisenhower scholar currently in the field introduces me to people as his protégée. I could not have a wiser, kinder mentor.<br />
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We finish with a reception. More handshakes, more fantastic contacts, more kind words. The pub is mooted, but I collapse onto the bed as soon as I get back to the hotel. 12 hours on, I'm still buzzing. Mark Shanahanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06582169025678103551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4750644041182093675.post-24366190683120024702013-03-07T08:11:00.000-08:002013-03-07T08:11:01.760-08:00USA diary day 3 - post-Sequestration WashingtonAnother early start - more due to my body clock than anything else. I headed into town breakfasting at Pret - one of the few reverse-trade invasions I've seen in the US. While MaccyDees, Gap, and just about every major US brand seem to have made it on to the UK's high streets, it's rare to see the phenomenon happening the other way round. But, at leas in DC and NYC, Pret a Manger seems to definitely be a growing brand.<br />
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On the stroke of 9am I was admitted into the National Archives - my first visit to this Pennsylvania Avenue monolith - though I was nearly mown down in the crush as a cottage industry of archive researchers scuttled for prime position in the reading room. The reading room's not all that bit, but was very busy - and on just the second day of post-sequestration DC, that was causing a problem.<br />
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I had just one box of materials to interrogate. I had very limited time, and had pinned down my search through pre-contact with the fabulous Ron Ross to the Congressional Records I really needed to see. I thought I was losing time going through the bureaucracy of getting a researcher's card and then having to meet up with a Congressional Records archivist to relay my request. However, by the time I was allowed into the reading room (after a false start when I was ejected for the sin of carrying a small camera case) my box of papers was ready - much to the evident surprise of the desk staff. <br />
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I'd somehow bypassed the file pulling system and was able to settle down and work my way through the record of the 85th Congress' Senate sub committee on astronautics and space. To be honest, I found the most useful materials in the first 30 minutes - but ploughed on for a further three hours.<br />
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More and more researchers arrived, and the desk spaces were soon full. I'm not sure why they weren't allowed to work in the adjacent rooms, but suspect it came down to supervisory staffing. While sequestration won't kick in at the National Archive for another six weeks, posts had been held unfilled in anticipation of the Capitol Hill stand-off. Coupled with a number of illnesses, there were just too few staff on the floor to cope with the voracious demand for files. Researchers are generally quite sanguine folk, but there were raised voices and exasperated sighs and files remained unpulled, and the queue to return materials stretched to the door.<br />
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It was quite a noisy room and I didn't find it conducive to good research - and was quite glad to leave before lunch. By 3pm I was on an Amtrak heading north east. Four and a half hours later, after passing through Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York, I was met from my train at Stamford, Connecticut and whisked to my concretely-functional hotel. I spent yesterday earning my keep to pay or this trip by delivering comms training at Diageo - a long day, but also very good fun. <br />
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My best memory of the last couple of days is an odd one. The train failed just before arriving at Stamford, leaving us in the dark without power. The driver came on the PA and said: "I don't really know what's wrong, but I'm going to turn everything off and on again and try and reboot the engine." It worked: it nearly always does...IT, trains...who knows what else. Mark Shanahanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06582169025678103551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4750644041182093675.post-18612006808706374642013-03-04T16:11:00.000-08:002013-03-04T16:11:30.092-08:00USA Diary - Day 2 - A great day in 'the bubble'<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Today was one of those research days that I wish happened far more often. I knew what I wanted; had some fantastic help in finding it - and picked up a few bonuses along the way too. <br />
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Still being largely on UK time, I was wide awake at 5am this morning. In fact, I hadn't really slept well at all last night. The room was really cold, infused with orange light from the street - and there were lights on in the house too, shining through the glass pane above my door. Anyway I was up and out by 6.40am and breakfasting in town by 7am. It all meant I arrived at NASA as soon as the doors opened, and was able to get through three thick public affairs files before lunch. As on my previous visits, Liz Suckow and Colin Fries were fantastic. They just know so much - and what they don't know, they know how to find - and quickly.<br />
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I spent lunch in the National Air and Space Museum - my irregular homage to the ballistic engineering and frontier technology that I still find so fascinating. <br />
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The afternoon was spent sifting through Bob Sherrod's files on the astronaut's<em> Life</em> magazine contract. Depending on which source you prefer, it was either the best or worst thing NASA did in the early days of the manned space programme. Even after eight hours of reading it up, down and sideways, I'm still not sure. I'll need to re-read and reflect to get my thoughts in order. <br />
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I had a final half hour in the library where the team had pulled a really helpful list of secondary source material for me including a couple of theses I'd never even heard of. I wish I had more time, but a bit of frantic photocopying definitely helped - and the new sources are a real bonus. <br />
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It has been a beautiful day here. Really cold, but wonderfully clear and blue. As is my wont, I walked everywhere, so even though it's just gone 7pm, I'm totally cream crackered now.<br />
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Anyway, National Archives in the morning, before the train journey to Connecticut.Mark Shanahanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06582169025678103551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4750644041182093675.post-45527765694102410042013-03-03T17:47:00.000-08:002013-03-03T17:47:10.543-08:00USA diary - day 1It feels as if it should be really late. But looking at my watch, it's just past 8.20pm I'm writing this while fighting tiredness. I've spent much of the day travelling, and don't really want to fall asleep now and then be wide awake at 4am. <br />
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I'm back in Washington DC, with a day at NASA and a few hours at the National Archives researching ahead of me before I head north. I'm staying in a guest house north of Logan Circus; comfortable, quiet and not too expensive.<br />
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The flight out from London was blissfully uneventful - a half empty plane meant I managed to get a double seat to myself, and passed the time watching Argo (very good) and The Silver Linings Playbook (which had its moments).<br />
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All was plain sailing at Dulles and I was in a van ready to head to the city only 30 minutes after landing. Then it all went a little wrong - with a very surreal couple of hours ensuing. The van driver laboriously loaded all our zip codes into his sat nav and headed out of Dulles - only to stop on the hard shoulder a few minutes later to do it all over again. It was clear he didn't have a whole lot of English (it turned out he was from Cameroon) and became ever clearer that a) he had no idea where he was going and b) didn't know how to use the sat nav. <br />
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He came off the freeway very early and seemed to be heading on an aimless tour of the suburbs before pulling up at a bank way out west on Massachusetts Avenue....nowhere near where anyone was heading. My van-mates were an English woman, and guys from France, Spain and Israel respectively. Over the next hour and a half our driver, who had been in the US for a month and had been given his sat nav (and job?) only the day before, managed to run several red lights, nearly run down at least one pedestrian and incur the ire of just about every other driver in DC. After a while he completely gave up on the sat nav and I directed him through the city (not hard, it's a grid) helped by two van mates whose French was better than mine. I was the last drop-off - and there were a lot of á droite and á gauche before we finally reached the right(ish) road. <br />
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I'm flabbergasted this guy was let out on the road - seemingly untrained and definitely quite panicky as the journey started to go wrong. I don't blame him, but his employer - Supreme - are doing themselves no favours at all while putting travellers at real risk. <br />
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So my drive was an experience - but not one I care to repeat.Mark Shanahanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06582169025678103551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4750644041182093675.post-57688414523054711032013-02-25T02:35:00.001-08:002013-02-25T02:35:38.193-08:00Reading around (and away from) the subjectOne of my passions is reading. Another is 20th century history. So when the two come together, I'm hooked. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqT3z-Agoaj-6cUjpNVwHLY9mgPpTqEcP8l6fv9MyZh8tYMTMB2IMvm6t__-5hSUULQgZ8r0tfSnbVZphkefzcseStPAcqvMC6bWRIP_LXHtgRPlnwzQysrOsW0BysZLyc3ffyRhccVHw/s1600/HHhH.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqT3z-Agoaj-6cUjpNVwHLY9mgPpTqEcP8l6fv9MyZh8tYMTMB2IMvm6t__-5hSUULQgZ8r0tfSnbVZphkefzcseStPAcqvMC6bWRIP_LXHtgRPlnwzQysrOsW0BysZLyc3ffyRhccVHw/s1600/HHhH.jpg" /></a>I've just finished reading <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0099555646">HHhH</a>, Laurent Binet's really rather excellent recounting of the plot to kill Reinhard Heydrich, the convener of the Wannsee Conference and a key player in the devising of the Final Solution. Last year I'd read Robert Gerwarth's scholarly account of the Acting Protector of Bohemia and Moravia - <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hitlers-Hangman-Heydrich-Robert-Gerwarth/dp/0300187726/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1361786487&sr=1-1">Hitler's Hangman</a>. It was a good solid read: lively for a scholarly work and strong on historical detail. But it had neither the edge not the cheek of Binet's work.<br />
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Binet gives us an historical narrative wrapped round with an intrusive first-person narrator (ostensibly the author) who tells the story of the plot while equally telling the story of how he is crafting his 'novel'. The energy is immense. His ability to pull the reader into the story shows a deft skill. And the fact that the work feels spontaneous is a testament to fine craftsmanship in what must have been a drawn-out and laboured process. HHhH is just very different from both historical accounts and novels covering well known events. <br />
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I really got on Binet's side in the book when he had a pop at Jonathan Littell's <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/feb/22/history-holocaust-books-jonathan-littell">The Kindly Ones.</a> A few years ago this had been hailed as one of the most important first novels in the last 50 years. But, while it's clearly forensically researched, I never believed in Max Aue the novel's chief protagonist. There was something too modern; too clinical and too knowing about him. The accounts of the Einsatzgruppen activities of the first 200 pages are remorseless - and frankly, having got through four or five bedtimes with industrial killing perpetrated by a character I couldn't believe in, I laid the book to one side. Two years on, I still haven't picked it up again. <br />
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I'm a sucker for historical fiction that feels real but his an air of humanity. I grew up on John Le Carré. I still rush out and buy his new books as soon as they hit the shops - always in person, always hardback - but doubt anything will ever surpass the <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/series/87753-the-karla-trilogy">The Karla Trilogy</a>: quite simply the British spy novel at its best. Le Carré surpasses the kind of genre fiction of the likes of David Downing with his Berlin Stations series, Tom Robb Smith's Child 44 books or even the early Arkady Renko series by Martin Cruz Smith (which rather lost its way in its latest manifestation). But in terms of both historic police procedurals and pre-war spies, I most definitely have my favourites.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.alanfurst.net/">Alan Furst's</a> spy novels that revolve around Paris' fictional Brasserie Heininger Capture the spirit of the time: the menace just around the corner and the belief that things can't surely be as bad as they seem. He has woven a three dimensional map of European intrigue where characters cross each other's paths and interact with real events in a way that seems natural and unforced. Meanwhile, Philip Kerr's doing a pretty good job to humanise the Kripo with his <a href="http://berniegunther.com/">Bernie Gunther</a> police and gumshoe procedurals set across the Nazi era. Some work better than others - but he's never better than when he's dealing with the complex relationship between his 'anto hero' and Gunther's boss: one Reinhard Heydrich. And isn't that where I came in?Mark Shanahanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06582169025678103551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4750644041182093675.post-84246194643518535462012-12-31T06:08:00.001-08:002012-12-31T06:08:48.207-08:00Goodbye 2012 and all that<div style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">
<img align="middle" alt="" border="0" class="th " height="76" sb_id="ms__id6794" src="https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcR4qQyK9nbcj3ZMXn9-dGQFYpcG-xfHP33H5sWapmqFfhTUoMeNNgT10CQp" style="margin: 0px;" title="http://www.geo.hunter.cuny.edu/~mpavlov/" width="227" />This is something of a displacement activity - I've set myself a target of adding 3,000 words to the PhD by the end of the kids' Christmas Holidays - and have so far managed to read one and a half relevant books instead. </div>
<br />
<br />
Actually, such displacement has been indicative of 2012 as far as my PhD has gone - this has been the year it got hard. <br />
<br />
In terms of displacement activities, most have been excellent - I've taught for most of the year at Brunel, City Lit and latterly at Reading University - all of which has been good for the academic CV. But research has been tough with most of my focus being on earning enough income to keep my head above water. That income comes not from academia but from corporate communications related work. I've had to spend much more time on that this year just to keep up a reasonably similar earning stream.<br />
<br />
I managed an excellent research trip to Boston and Abilene in April - but this time it all came out of my pocket - I didn't land a single £ of grant funding this year, despite half a dozen solid applications (certainly no worse than the ones that unlocked £2,000 of funding in 2010). While the documents I unearthed and assessed made the trip absolutely worthwhile, I feel like I've been playing catch-up ever since. <br />
<br />
In terms of positives on the year, I now have a structure for the PhD and have significant progress on two chapters - I probably have 10,000+ usable words, with a target of doubling that by April, and adding a further 20,000 by August. Beyond the thesis, I made a great contact in <a href="http://authors.simonandschuster.com/David-A-Nichols/42263792">Dave Nichols</a>, a truly nice man and a pleasure to work alongside in Abilene back in the Spring. Dave was immensely generous with his time and encouraged me greatly in my writing - to the extent that he recommended me for the Ike Reconsidered conference that Hunter College is hosting in New York in March. I've had a paper accepted, and now find myself due to present alongside the great and the good in the Eisenhower scholarship field. Am I up to it? Time will tell and I suspect a couple of hours alongside one of my heroes, <a href="http://www.princeton.edu/~fig/">Fred Greenstein</a>, as well as Eisenhower's most recent biographer <a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-columnist-jnewton,0,3127679.columnist">Jim Newton</a> and <a class="bookAuthor" href="http://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/?GCOI=80140100327770">Yanek <span class="lastname">Mieczkowski</span></a> who's about to publish a book right bang smack in the middle of my research field and, of course, Dave himself. I suspect that over a couple of days I'll be made very aware whether or not my thesis holds water. <br />
<br />
At the moment, as well as the challenge of pulling a paper together (and it will be based strongly on an updated and expanded version of last year's <a href="http://www.49thparallel.bham.ac.uk/back/issue27/shanahan.htm">240,000 mile cul de sac</a> piece), there's the simple challenge of getting to the US to present. Hunter College are covering my costs while on US soil (and many thanks to them for that), but flights and a few days associated research before the conference will leave me with a bill close to £1,000 on top of this year's fees and all the usual costs - the application writing starts here!<br />
<br />
My year's negative is the new bureaucracy imposed by my School within the University which I've finding hinders my progress rather than aiding it. My tactic at the moment is ignoring it as much as possible. However, being disgruntled by a process that is beginning to feel like a sausage machine focused on Brunel's REF rather than the individual needs of each research student. <br />
<br />
Anyway, I can't afford to dwell on that - not when there's 3,000 PhD words to be corralled from notes and documents; a presentation to be built and scripted and at least two grant applications to be written.<br />
<br />
2013 will be a big year....it has to be. Mark Shanahanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06582169025678103551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4750644041182093675.post-88047505690191659832012-12-07T05:44:00.001-08:002012-12-07T05:44:39.971-08:00End of term quiz - answersAs promised, here are the answers to my end of term quiz. <br />
<br />
1. What was Harry Truman’s middle name?<br />
<br />
he didn't have one - but added 'S' to his signature as he felt it added gravity to his name. <br />
<br />
2 What role did George W Bush hold prior to his election as President?<br />
<br />
Governor of Texas<br />
<br />
3. What happened on October 4 1957?<br />
<ul>
<li>Launch of Sputnik </li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">4.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In what year did the French withdraw from Indo China?</span><br />
<br />
1954<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; mso-list: l8 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">5. The Tet Offensive occurred on the Vietnamese equivalent of:</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">c) New Year</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">6. Peter Davis’ 1974 Oscar Winning Film is called:</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">b) Hearts and Minds<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">7. Who was the last man on the moon?</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">a) Gene Cernan<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span> </span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">8. Who was Jimmy Carter’s Foreign policy nemesis</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">b) Ayatollah Khomenei<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span><br />
<br />
9. The tall guy's LBJ <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjN62hs394URYfl0L2ndjOemSbbsS5rNR8QWO2YK6PF2jMUKqtYcDlqCSyzIISUkXczB_I_z4LPvX0jxwuKz2K6Q3LCZIjZdzacIPVaOJc6ZyCwVv9Bv79ORkjAWwSMo3sSMH9AwSeIEw4/s1600/lbj_close_talker.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjN62hs394URYfl0L2ndjOemSbbsS5rNR8QWO2YK6PF2jMUKqtYcDlqCSyzIISUkXczB_I_z4LPvX0jxwuKz2K6Q3LCZIjZdzacIPVaOJc6ZyCwVv9Bv79ORkjAWwSMo3sSMH9AwSeIEw4/s200/lbj_close_talker.jpg" width="116" /></a><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">10. What did Truman describe his entry into the Korean War as? </span><br />
<br />
A Police Action</div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">11. Who shot JFK? </span><br />
<br />
Lee Harvey Oswald</div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">12. In Presidential terms, who’s the odd one out?</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">a)<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span>Gerald Ford<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> - never elected to Executive Office</span></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">13. Complete this sentence: “I shall go to......”</span><br />
<br />
Korea<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">14. Name three military interventions carried out by the Clinton administration.</span><br />
<br />
Somalia, Haiti, Bosnia - there are others. </div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">15. The CIA was mandated to overthrow the Government of Guatemala by President...</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">c) Eisenhower</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhj6k3vSklV6YQa7kU5l31j2ROhudeHSQag9UG2QqNxbHwMH2awCSBfEw0a99RhF-tB1yUfnZSSyzbe7QDYbDNtbrHy6dq5o9EdAv4kFOuwo3u5T0of-CQ68g1JgASinERV9oZ5VumnKsc/s1600/George+Kennan.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="126" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhj6k3vSklV6YQa7kU5l31j2ROhudeHSQag9UG2QqNxbHwMH2awCSBfEw0a99RhF-tB1yUfnZSSyzbe7QDYbDNtbrHy6dq5o9EdAv4kFOuwo3u5T0of-CQ68g1JgASinERV9oZ5VumnKsc/s200/George+Kennan.jpg" width="200" /></a><br />
</div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt 36pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo6; tab-stops: list 36.0pt; text-indent: -18pt;">
1 16. This is George Kennan (though he looks like Morrissey)<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">17. Who was George W Bush’s Secretary of Defence?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">c) Donald Rumpsfeld </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">18. What position did Bess, Mamie and Rosalynn all hold?</span><br />
<br />
First Lady</div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">19. What was SDI more commonly know as?</span><br />
<br />
Strategic Defence Initiative - or Star Wars</div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">20. Which was the only foreign state invaded under Reagan’s presidency?</span><br />
<br />
Grenada<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">21. Who was President when man first walked on the moon?</span><br />
<br />
Nixon</div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">22. 1968 was famous for the summer of:</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">b) love<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span></span><br /></div>
23. These two fine fellows are Douglas MacArthur and John Foster Dulles<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuZHTQQhvp0K0sWRNCWjQ6a8sVfW8DuiyK-JXcR1-6__eVM5R3s0eTBoIE9wPrGoCTsUAfrJ07C2Oi54HeupLsQgvtDhkJ6V8w-J8jnNTzWM94ErvkyZKugMc9Tolsql0GDR5m8oTG2sk/s1600/Dulles+McArthur.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuZHTQQhvp0K0sWRNCWjQ6a8sVfW8DuiyK-JXcR1-6__eVM5R3s0eTBoIE9wPrGoCTsUAfrJ07C2Oi54HeupLsQgvtDhkJ6V8w-J8jnNTzWM94ErvkyZKugMc9Tolsql0GDR5m8oTG2sk/s200/Dulles+McArthur.jpg" width="141" /></a><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">24. What is the key principle of the Nixon Doctrine? </span><br />
<br />
Vietnamization<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">25. Who is the most famous peanut farmer in US history?</span> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Jimmy Carter</span></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span><br />
<br />
<div align="left">
</div>
<br />
</div>
Mark Shanahanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06582169025678103551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4750644041182093675.post-58737472807475828562012-11-30T07:08:00.002-08:002012-11-30T07:37:21.161-08:00The end of term quizMy teaching this term is slightly odd - one batch at the beginning of term, another running fairly normally through the term and my 3rd year Reading Uni students completing their first eight-week hit from me yesterday.<br />
<br />
Both seminar sets finished with a term quiz. The best score was 15...not quite as high as I'd hoped. <br />
<br />
Here are the questions - have a crack at them, I'll post the answers next week. <br />
<br />
1. What was Harry Truman’s middle name?
<br />
<br />
2 What role did George W Bush hold prior to his election as President?<br />
<ul>
<li>
Senator for California </li>
<li>Congressman for Houston </li>
<li>Governor of Texas
</li>
</ul>
3. What happened on October 4 1957?
<br />
<ul>
<li>Launch of Sputnik </li>
<li>Launch of Yuri Gagarin</li>
<li>First man on moon </li>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></ul>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">4.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In what year did
the French withdraw from Indo China?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt 36pt; mso-list: l9 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt; text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">a)<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span>1945<span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>b) 1955<span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>c) 1954</span></div>
<ol start="5" style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; mso-list: l8 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">5. The
Tet Offensive occurred on the Vietnamese equivalent of:</span></div>
<ol start="5" style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="1"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">a)<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span>Christmas<span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>b) Easter<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>c) New Year</span></ol>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">6. Peter Davis’ 1974 Oscar Winning Film is called:</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt 36pt; mso-list: l7 level1 lfo4; tab-stops: list 36.0pt; text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">a)<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span>Platoon<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>b) Hearts and Minds<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>c) The Deer Hunter</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">7. Who was the last man on the moon?</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">a) Gene Cernan<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>b)
Charlie Duke<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>c) Buzz Aldrin </span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">8. Who
was Jimmy Carter’s Foreign policy nemesis</span><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt 36pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo6; tab-stops: list 36.0pt; text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">a)<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span>Ayatollah
Khamenei<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>b) Ayatollah Khomenei<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>c) Mahmoud Ahmadinejad</span><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjN62hs394URYfl0L2ndjOemSbbsS5rNR8QWO2YK6PF2jMUKqtYcDlqCSyzIISUkXczB_I_z4LPvX0jxwuKz2K6Q3LCZIjZdzacIPVaOJc6ZyCwVv9Bv79ORkjAWwSMo3sSMH9AwSeIEw4/s1600/lbj_close_talker.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjN62hs394URYfl0L2ndjOemSbbsS5rNR8QWO2YK6PF2jMUKqtYcDlqCSyzIISUkXczB_I_z4LPvX0jxwuKz2K6Q3LCZIjZdzacIPVaOJc6ZyCwVv9Bv79ORkjAWwSMo3sSMH9AwSeIEw4/s200/lbj_close_talker.jpg" width="116" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">9. Who’s the tall guy? <span style="mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-no-proof: yes;"><v:shapetype coordsize="21600,21600" filled="f" id="_x0000_t75" o:preferrelative="t" o:spt="75" path="m@4@5l@4@11@9@11@9@5xe" stroked="f">
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<span style="font-family: inherit; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-no-proof: yes;"></span><br /></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">10. What did Truman describe his entry into the Korean War
as? </span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">11. Who shot JFK? </span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">12. In Presidential terms, who’s the odd one out?</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt 36pt; mso-list: l4 level1 lfo7; tab-stops: list 36.0pt; text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">a)<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span>Gerald
Ford<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>b) Harry Truman<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>c) Lyndon Johnson</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">13. Complete this sentence: “I shall go to......”</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">14. Name three military interventions carried out by the
Clinton administration.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">15. The CIA was mandated to overthrow the Government of
Guatemala by President...</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt 36pt; mso-list: l3 level1 lfo8; tab-stops: list 36.0pt; text-indent: -18pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">a)<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span>Nixon<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>b) Kennedy<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>c)
Eisenhower</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhj6k3vSklV6YQa7kU5l31j2ROhudeHSQag9UG2QqNxbHwMH2awCSBfEw0a99RhF-tB1yUfnZSSyzbe7QDYbDNtbrHy6dq5o9EdAv4kFOuwo3u5T0of-CQ68g1JgASinERV9oZ5VumnKsc/s1600/George+Kennan.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="126" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhj6k3vSklV6YQa7kU5l31j2ROhudeHSQag9UG2QqNxbHwMH2awCSBfEw0a99RhF-tB1yUfnZSSyzbe7QDYbDNtbrHy6dq5o9EdAv4kFOuwo3u5T0of-CQ68g1JgASinERV9oZ5VumnKsc/s200/George+Kennan.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">16. Who’s this? </span><span style="mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-no-proof: yes;"><v:shape alt="George Kennan.jpg" id="Picture_x0020_2" o:spid="_x0000_i1026" style="height: 58pt; mso-wrap-style: square; visibility: visible; width: 113pt;" type="#_x0000_t75"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">17. Who was George W Bush’s Secretary of Defence?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">a)<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span>Colin
Powell b) Condoleezza Rice c) Donald Rumpsfeld </span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">18. What position did Bess, Mamie and Rosalynn all hold?</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">19. What was SDI more commonly know as?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">20. Which was the only foreign state invaded under Reagan’s
presidency?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">21. Who was President when man first walked on the moon?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">22. 1968 was famous for the summer of:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">a)<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span>peace<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>b)
love<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>c) hate<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>d) understanding</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuZHTQQhvp0K0sWRNCWjQ6a8sVfW8DuiyK-JXcR1-6__eVM5R3s0eTBoIE9wPrGoCTsUAfrJ07C2Oi54HeupLsQgvtDhkJ6V8w-J8jnNTzWM94ErvkyZKugMc9Tolsql0GDR5m8oTG2sk/s1600/Dulles+McArthur.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuZHTQQhvp0K0sWRNCWjQ6a8sVfW8DuiyK-JXcR1-6__eVM5R3s0eTBoIE9wPrGoCTsUAfrJ07C2Oi54HeupLsQgvtDhkJ6V8w-J8jnNTzWM94ErvkyZKugMc9Tolsql0GDR5m8oTG2sk/s200/Dulles+McArthur.jpg" width="141" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">23. Who are these two? </span><span style="mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-no-proof: yes;"><v:shape alt="Dulles McArthur.jpg" id="Picture_x0020_3" o:spid="_x0000_i1025" style="height: 111pt; mso-wrap-style: square; visibility: visible; width: 100pt;" type="#_x0000_t75"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
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</v:imagedata></span></v:shape></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">24. What is the key principle of the Nixon Doctrine? </span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">25. Who is the most famous peanut farmer in US history?</span> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">You can, of course, always leave your answers as a comment. </span></div>
<span style="color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 24pt; language: en-GB; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 1; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea;">an<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>b) Charlie Duke<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>c) Buzz </span><span style="color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 24pt; language: en-GB; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 1; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea;">Aldrin</span><span style="color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 24pt; language: en-GB; mso-ascii-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-color-index: 1; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea;">
</span>Mark Shanahanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06582169025678103551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4750644041182093675.post-10237445299069129412012-09-13T01:52:00.001-07:002012-09-13T01:52:47.475-07:00Soaring sentiment - but rhetoric or reality?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipX1V0LOEvmayl4gVlS6pnUbUvS7MVKtLvwI-c3Dcwh6eymgh4HCQbnhX5FgHZcJLlf9K7BQNDcB0ULAk-HpUxtwX7OQybEeQOaG57dh8ZMlM00YrnD0TWGq6jCEYJcjhq7BpV8GwQTzQ/s1600/kennedy_rice%5B1%5D.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipX1V0LOEvmayl4gVlS6pnUbUvS7MVKtLvwI-c3Dcwh6eymgh4HCQbnhX5FgHZcJLlf9K7BQNDcB0ULAk-HpUxtwX7OQybEeQOaG57dh8ZMlM00YrnD0TWGq6jCEYJcjhq7BpV8GwQTzQ/s1600/kennedy_rice%5B1%5D.jpg" /></a></div>
Yesterday marked the 50th anniversary of Kennedy's address at Rice University in Texas when he said: <em>"We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things not because
they are easy but because they are hard."</em><br />
<br />
It was a striking statement in a superbly crafted speech which probably owed as much to JFK's Special Counsel Ted Sorensen as it did to the President. But one should never do down Kennedy's power as an orator. He had the charm, grace and gift for telling a good story that the likes of Truman, Eisenhower, Johnson and Nixon could only dream of. And, at the height of Camelot's power, he had the nation in the palm of his hand.<br />
<br />
But did JFK really have a deep passion for space? Was he quite as fully committed to the moon landing as his Rice oratory suggests? Was going to the moon even the right path to take?<br />
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Of course, it has been an area of huge debate and one I cover to some extent in my <a href="http://www.49thparallel.bham.ac.uk/back/issue27/shanahan.htm">'240,000 mile cul de sac'</a> paper. <br />
<br />
Perhaps we remember Kennedy's speech because the moon landing happened. Perhaps the moon landing happened only because Johnson needed to deliver a legacy for Kennedy. Perhaps, if that fateful visit to Dallas in November 1963 hadn't happened, the US path to outer space would have taken a different course as tax bills, civil rights, Vietnam and the wider Cold War filled the Presidential agenda in the expected second term. Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps.<br />
<br />
Speculation aside, this was one of the most powerful political speeches from the age of frontierism. Mark Shanahanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06582169025678103551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4750644041182093675.post-74585088509754644352012-08-07T07:37:00.000-07:002012-08-07T07:37:06.102-07:00The 'great leap' is a slow crawl<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOVzVCh8MgvOaQ6sPrIB9Nd3HSyJI1DRkox1w8sBg9GSfiwIoGdF-J-vHFVfjUSeUuV3tD2tkB2z40W11Edal9iPgLdspjnzRxR1bMK8R37uDrdI0xvUjoyhyFxtfAlPNkm-i-Rp9SRy4/s1600/laika+stamp.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="248" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOVzVCh8MgvOaQ6sPrIB9Nd3HSyJI1DRkox1w8sBg9GSfiwIoGdF-J-vHFVfjUSeUuV3tD2tkB2z40W11Edal9iPgLdspjnzRxR1bMK8R37uDrdI0xvUjoyhyFxtfAlPNkm-i-Rp9SRy4/s320/laika+stamp.jpg" width="320" /></a>If you've looked at this blog before, you'll notice a couple of changes - notably the title and indeed the web address. It's pretty clear to me that my research is tied into the 1950s not the '60s and therefore to call this occasional musing 'race to the moon' is rather disingenuous. This blog charts my part-time, mid-career PhD research project reassessing one aspect of Eisenhower's presidency that has so far been largely overlooked: his contribution to US space policy as rockets and satellites first broke out of the earth's atmosphere. <br />
<br />
I'm slowly getting my thoughts together around Eisenhower's contribution to US outer space policy - and it strikes me more and more that had the US followed the Eisenhower (Killian/Kistiakwsky/Glennan et al) plan, there'd be more than a six wheel rover scooting round on Mars right now. <br />
<br />
Indeed, my current work is looking at the impact of a dead dog - not quite the dead cat bounce, but Laika's flight on Sputnik 2 had a distinct impact on the western world's psyche - and it's not one that has been sufficiently explored in the past. Whether I'll hit my target of a 10,000 word chapter section by the end of September is moot - though it would also go a long way towards my next goal of another academic journal article so is well worth the push. Unfortunately, having to earn a living and the distraction of three children off on summer holidays is rather eating into my research time. After a couple of weeks away, I've yet to get back into a disciplined routine, but need to do so quickly. <br />
<br />
One tiny step is to refocus this blog. If nothing else, it gets me thinking and writing about my subject again.Mark Shanahanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06582169025678103551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4750644041182093675.post-57899996744178030542012-06-27T03:59:00.001-07:002012-06-27T04:00:55.583-07:00Fees conundrumIt seems to me that research students are the Cinderellas of the university system. In these days of increasingly transactional relationships between institutions and their students, the 'value' offered for my £ thousands paid out in each year is far easier to measure if you're a) full-time b) on campus and c) part of a taught degree course.<br />
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In my field, new full time undergrads and taught postgrads know they'll get, say 120 lectures a year; maybe 60 seminars and can take advantage of a fixed amount of staff office hours. They'll know they have to complete perhaps 10 assignments between October and May and then sit four or five exams. They'll also have access to the library and, more important today, to online library resources that universities pay thousands for each year. <br />
<br />
Without doubt, the more the student puts in, the more they get out of their experience - and it's relatively easy to conduct a cost/benefit analysis. <br />
<br />
But what about research students - and should universities be thinking about a different model for charging research student fees?<br />
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I'm exceedingly relieved that I started my PhD before the student fees hike. I'm self-funded and my fees come out of income while I work alongside my study. <br />
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What I get for those fees is access to a research office with a PC and a phone (UK calls only); library membership; invitations to attend/participate in departmental reseach seminars; an annual researcher presentation event and, most importantly, access to two supervisors who help guide my study. I also get a research allowance of £180 per year - though am very limited in what I can use this for. <br />
<br />
As a mature student, living 30+ miles from campus, registered as part-time and working full time: I use the office rarely - I'm really only ever there on about 24 days when I'm teaching in the academic year - and I'm not actually doing much PhD stuff those days! Library membership is vital and valuable - though 95% of my use is online. Research seminars tend to happen on a weekday afternoon so it's rare I can attend and the research presentation event covers a wide scope from economics through political science to history so is interesting, but frustrating too. I don't pay a full fee, but nor do I pay half of what full timers shell out. <br />
<br />
The key 'value' comes from the student/supervisor relationship - yet no matter how heavily or lightly I lean on my mentors, the price remains the same. However frequently or infrequently I use the campus facilities, the price remains the same - and however much or little I choose to engage with the department, the price I pay remains the same. <br />
<br />
In these economically turbulent times, would it not make sense for institutions to be more flexible in their charging structures - not just for existing researchers, but to help attract those who will undoubtedly be put off from even applying in the future by stratospheric fees and the ever-increasing feel that institutions are being asked to do more with less? <br />
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If I was looking to attract student now, I'd have a menu of charges related to needs:<br />
<div>
</div>
<ul>
<li>A core fee would buy you access to the library and, say four supervisory meeting per year; </li>
<li>An enhanced fee could secure office space. </li>
<li>Departmental student events would be based on, and built around, student demand and charged on a per-event basis. They would also happen at a time convenient for students, not just departmental staff.</li>
<li>Additional supervisorys could be purchased - £X per hour - book three get one free etc. </li>
<li>A premium fee would offer presentation and critique opportunities, and perhaps support to attend external events and be part of a wider network.</li>
</ul>
These are just top of the head thoughts, but it's time institutions became more commercial and more savvy in responding to student needs rather than continually being driven by a 'one size fits all' process. Some of us only need/want or can afford the 'institution-lite' approach to a PhD, while others will want full immersion and a helping hand all along the way. Assuming we set a base level of support that is sufficient to get someone through this research apprenticeship, do universities have to apply the same cost structure to everyone?<br />
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No private business would operate in the way our universities do today. The current fee/value model, and indeed wider funding model seems less sustainable year by year. <br />
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Is it time for institutions to dare to do something different?<br />
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<br />Mark Shanahanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06582169025678103551noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4750644041182093675.post-85133320050007566752012-06-20T07:02:00.000-07:002012-06-20T07:02:43.439-07:00Time for a great leap forwardSo I've been at this PhD thing for two years and nine months now - very part-time, and generally fitted in between work commitments, the demands of a full family life and, more recently, my own first forays into academic teaching. Even now, I'm updating this while waiting for someone to fulfil a request for information on a corporate intranet site I'm writing/editing copy for. Up until very recently I was motoring on at my own pace on the PhD, reading everything in sight, covering dusty second hand books in sticky book marks and highlighting searing insights across dozens of learned journal papers. <br />
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I would have been quite happy being locked in a dusty room for a few years while I pulled everything together into a satisfyingly heavy thesis with just the occasional surfacing to sit at the feet of my supervisor and make the necessary course corrections to ensure what emerged actually had some scholarly merit. <br />
<br />
But my university doesn't work like that any more. There comes a point where all Brunel researchers have to be 'confirmed' in their study - what follows may be beatification or even canonisation for all I know, but what matters now is that I have a hurdle to get over before I can set my sights on writing up my core chapters and defending my view of the world - or at least Eisenhower's decision making around the policy issues of outer space.<br />
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This new step was rather dropped on us in May and probably caused more angst than it should - not least for those in the cohort whose draft theses were more or less complete and who had their sights set more on an external viva than an internal approval of their work. I'm not quite there yet, but I've set a target of having my thesis complete by the end of 2013. I just want to get on and spend my days writing up my two research trips and pinpointing the gaps that will probably lead to a third trip to the US next year before I can finalise my not-so-grand opus. <br />
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But now I find that I have to go through confirmation and quite soon - September 17 is D Day for a suite of documents ranging from my abstract, methodology and outline to a substantial piece of work that I'll have to defend internally. No doubt it will be good practice for the real thing, but coming on top of a Research Presentation event and Annual Review, it feels like a bureaucratic chore. <br />
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It also feels like a devaluing of the student/supervisor model that seems to work pretty well. I have two supervisors, meet with one regularly and get good arm's length feedback from the second. The last two years has been a little like peeling skin from an onion: I started with one idea which has been refined, nuanced and focused so that what I'm now working on bears some resemblance to the original research idea, but has a more workable scope, and goes deeper rather than wider into the subject. <br />
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I'm uncomfortable with the confirmation process. It appears to be, to some degree, arse covering for the university - a process where they can reassure themselves that research students are going to complete. But shouldn't that control, that accountability and that sense of whether a research project is worthy of a PhD come from research supervisors? This new process seems to imply a lack of trust that supervisors can judge the students they're supervising with sufficient objectivity. For me, 40-something, self-funded and with a passion for my subject, I will complete. However, I feel I'll do so in spite of the system, not because of it.Mark Shanahanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06582169025678103551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4750644041182093675.post-41542439880979536282012-05-15T03:13:00.000-07:002012-05-15T03:28:53.725-07:00Fault line on the nexus of my 'day job' and my academic lifeFor the past 27 years, after leaving university first time round, I've worked in journalism and latterly, organisational communication. For the past five years I've been back in academia; collecting an MA and working towards a PhD. For the past two I've been teaching in a university history department - part-time and on a short contract basis. This year in particular, my module has proved popular. The feedback has been good and students have become very engaged in the subject.<br />
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I've been able to bring all my experience of corporate communications to bear on designing and delivering my lectures and seminars. There's a huge parallel with the kind of training I've done for years in industry and the facilitation work I've done with corporate and industry leaders over the last decade.<br />
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It helps too that I'm the father to teenagers not far short in age of the young adults I've been teaching. I'm beginning to understand their on-line linked up world where the old style of lecturing from my first university experience simply wouldn't cut it any more. <br />
<br />
So, my lectures are bracketed with music chosen to have some relevance to the topic. I use You Tube and other video sources extensively to bring to life the people and events we're covering. Much of the seminar work is based around primary sources - and generally I prefer the students to find and introduce at least some of those sources. <br />
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It's a first year group, and as well as getting a good grounding in the subject, I want them to get enjoyment from our Thursday afternoons together and come out feeling they want to learn more - to scrape beneath the surface view. I don't claim that my sessions cover all the bases; I don't claim that they give more than a partial view - and at times I'll deliberately go out on an extreme to drive home a point. But I want the students to leave the lecture room sufficiently engaged with the subject to go and find out more: to read deeply and get the full story - if only to disprove the line I've taken. <br />
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In the UK system of little contact time and much space left for private study, it's all I can do. I'm not yet a great teacher and still have a huge amount to learn. But finally, I think I've found my metier. This student engagement in subjects I'm passionate about is what I do best. <br />
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My approach in attempting to connect the students to the subject matter through some side-on angles isn't revolutionary - indeed I'm aping the best of my experience through my Masters. Where I am perhaps hard wired slightly differently is in bringing my experience of the world beyond academia to bear from lecture one term one in making students think beyond their three or four years of academic study to the harsh working world that will be waiting for them in a couple of years' time. <br />
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I want them to immerse themselves in their subject: to begin to think as historians and to move beyond the narrative I can share with them to question why things turned out as they did. But equally, I want to help them develop good habits: to turn up on time; to participate in class; to be generous in sharing views; to accept and deal with constructive criticism; to organise their thoughts cogently and present them coherently, on time and within the expected standards. That may sound like a no-brainer, but it's not the case for a number of reasons.<br />
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On the student side, they've come through a school system designed to enable them to get the right grades in exams. That means spoon-fed learning, narrow-cast around fulfilling exam criteria. Having only 10 hours contact time with staff at university per week; being asked to research subjects without a feeding spoon; and simply being away from home for the first time is perhaps a bigger ask of students than ever before. <br />
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And on the staff side, frankly the system has become too lax and simply doesn't demand sufficient discipline from students. We don't make lectures and seminars compulsory and equally don't have enough support in place to help those sinking students learn to swim. The latter point comes in part from a lack of funding; the former is merely a hangover from more freewheeling liberal approaches that first permeated campuses a generation ago. Yes, we have to respect that our students are adults who choose to be on our course. But my view is that many don't arrive from school with sufficient structure in place to make the right decisions on their own. At first year level, I'd make contact time compulsory. It builds good practice that won't just carry through their study time, but will be invaluable in landing and keeping a job after graduation.<br />
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It's at this point that my 'day job' and academic life collides most. For over a year I've been working on Adecco's <a href="http://www.unlockingbritainspotential.co.uk/">Unlocking Britain's Potential</a> initiative. This is looking at why Britain's workforce isn't as effective as it could be - and one of the key findings is that young workers simply aren't ready for the world of work, whether they emerge from education at 16, 18 or in the early 20s. Of course, it's a huge generalisation, but the majority of the employers I spoke to during the research spoke about the issues they have both with managing young people's expectations (the 'entitled' generation was a recurring theme), and instilling the discipline and loyalty necessary for that young person to be a productive and contributing member of the organisation. <br />
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Industry blames the education system for not producing the 'finished work-ready goods', while the education sector bemoans the lack of industry support - from shaping curricula to offering the work placements through education that will open young people's eyes to the reality of work. They're both right, and I hope UBP will help cement some of the links that are clearly lacking. <br />
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For me though, one of the most disconcerting aspects of the past two years has been the disconnect in what academia is, and should be, about. For me, teaching the next generation and opening their minds so that they can make the bridge into a career is the vital aspect. I put everything of myself into that part of university life - yet it actually counts for nothing on my PhD.<br />
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While internal student satisfaction and, increasingly the <a href="http://www.thestudentsurvey.com/">National Student Survey</a> play a part in grading the department and attracting students, our funding is based on the quality of published research - written by academics for academics and largely read by three old men and a dog. Teaching is secondary and lecturers are recruited into the department on the basis of the the funding their research will attract. There's a fundamental dichotomy here. True, some great researchers are also great teachers but it's by no means always the case. At the moment, great teaching doesn't attract funding and so there's little incentive for departments to recruit staff members who will make the student experience truly memorable. If it happens now, it's by luck not judgement.<br />
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The next generation is not attracted to study in our institutions by the scholarly articles we publish (ok, I've only published <a href="http://www.49thparallel.bham.ac.uk/back/issue27/Shanahan.htm">one</a>...and a review) but will increasingly be attracted by the electronic word-of-mouth of social media - the views of current students - <em>and</em> by tracking where our graduates end up in their working lives. We are not an end in ourselves. For the next generation of students, employability will be far more a pressing reason to choose or reject a department than the research interests of the faculty. <br />
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So where am I heading with this? Well, I'm beginning to draw my conclusions. In brief, they are:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li> Providing funding to departments only on the basis of research devalues the teaching experience and is unsustainable in a new era of growing student choice</li>
<li>Students want good teaching and more informed contact time - most don't give a toss about the department's reputation for scholarly research</li>
<li>The university experience has to add another layer: subject specialist excellence has to remain at the forefront, but especially in non-vocational subjects, there needs to be a far greater emphasis on supporting students across the transition from school to university and then from university into work</li>
<li>Industry/university partnerships are not a dirty concept - they will become ever-more essential and need to break out of the narrow confines of law firm - law department and 'big four' - business school and embrace all departments and all types of industrial and commercial organisation</li>
<li>Teaching experience and skill should be a measured and rewarded aspect of PhD study for any researcher contemplating an academic career </li>
<li>We need to instill greater discipline in students at university level - not to do so is bad for everyone.</li>
</ul>
As liberal in thought and voting practice, my views surprise even me. Cripes, I'll be advocating 'Victorian Values' next....<br />
<br />Mark Shanahanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06582169025678103551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4750644041182093675.post-68694744497237678222012-05-15T02:00:00.001-07:002012-05-15T02:00:48.451-07:00Dear Diary - I'm backSo, I entirely failed to keep up my daily diary covering my later days in Abilene and the return to the UK....which all happened over a fortnight ago. <br />
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The main reason was, as has happened on previous research trips, the final couple of days assumed a new level of intensity. I had more specific information to find - and indeed found much of what I was looking for.<br />
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Suddenly seven hours in an archive wasn't enough, and my evenings were spent reading around my subject and trying to pull all my thoughts into order.<br />
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I headed home on a high - only to have my wings filled with flak at the Brunel Research Presentation event on my return.<br />
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My head was still filled with the connections from Bikini Atoll through the U2 and Corona to NASA - but I didn't articulate those linkages particularly well, and was rather forensically pulled apart by the great and good of my department.<br />
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I'm confident the hypothesis works and that I have the evidence to support it. The next few months will be a matter of unpicking all that evidence from the documents i collected and beginning to develop a coherent narrative. <br />
<br />Mark Shanahanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06582169025678103551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4750644041182093675.post-63323146538471893892012-04-25T18:42:00.000-07:002012-04-25T18:42:15.312-07:00Up against timeThree days down and one and a half to go and I'm feeling up against time in the research. I've been through 18 boxes - some excellent, others a lot less so in terms of providing what I need, and I've yet to touch the Killian papers here or tie down Ike's reaction to the Bikini Atoll H bomb tests, or cement the link between Killian and Bissell. Tomorrow will be a crucial day: I've identified most of what I want to go through, but will be looking for archival advice. So, really for the first time on this trip I'll be testing the system!<br />
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One real positive of today was being taken to lunch by Dave Nichols - a fascinating man and one who has a rare insight into Ike's Presidency. It was a very enjoyable meal.Mark Shanahanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06582169025678103551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4750644041182093675.post-5036440182175397032012-04-24T16:22:00.000-07:002012-04-24T16:22:17.544-07:00Piecing together the jigsawAnother solid slog in the Research Room today - 90 degrees outside, but as ever the Eisenhower Presidential Library was COLD. It seems that the building has an in-built inverse reaction - as the heat rises outside, the chill sets in within the 1961 walls of the building. <br />
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Abilene is really green at the moment though - it was already the washed-out height of summer last time I came, so it's nice to see the trees just greening up and butterflies swarming on the flowers in the manicured Library gardens.<br />
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All those yellow flashes on top of the plants are butterflies -my picture doesn't do justice to the hundreds clustering around.</div>
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The first 90 minutes today revealed nothing of note but the next 90 proved fruitful. This afternoon, spent working laboriously through the Washington diary of George Kistiakowsky, who succeeded Jim Killian as Eisenhower's Scientific Adviser, demonstrated just how much policy was made on the fly, and the extreme lobbying power of certain individuals who ensured their case was made to the President, even when cost, logic and sentiment appeared to favour other options.</div>
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My companion in the research room was the very charming Dr Dave Nichols author of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Matter-Justice-Eisenhower-Beginning-Revolution/dp/1416541500">'A Matter of Justice'</a> and <a href="http://authors.simonandschuster.com/David-A-Nichols/42263792">'Eisenhower 1956'</a>. Very self-effacing and obviously in love with his subject, I'm looking forward to learning more from him over the course of the week.</div>
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</div>Mark Shanahanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06582169025678103551noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4750644041182093675.post-53085531552396744312012-04-23T20:28:00.000-07:002012-04-23T20:28:13.395-07:00Back in the ol' routineThings I've learned today:<br />
<ul>
<li>Researching in a Presidential archive is better second time round - I really enjoyed my day's research today and got much more out of it than on my last visit to Abilene. This time round, rather than just grabbing anything related to 'space', I know what I'm after. I'm looking for links that draw the key 'helping hands' together in the Eisenhower/space policy story. And, after about five boxes of Bissell material, I've teased out quite a lot of stuff that will be useful in the thesis.</li>
<li>It's impossible to look at research materials for eight hours straight. This kind of research demands breaks - a walk to the local cafe (great for overhearing gossip) at lunchtime; a walk to the local store to buy a drink. Otherwise, I stop seeing seeing what's in front of me when I'm reading documents late in the day.</li>
<li>It's better to do fewer boxes thoroughly than try to cover everything in the library. Last time round I 'covered' 18 boxes one day. Today I did five - and got far more out of them.</li>
<li>Don't talk religion or politics around this town. The people are wonderfully warm and welcoming here - but I don't think there are too many sharing my liberal views. </li>
</ul>Mark Shanahanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06582169025678103551noreply@blogger.com0