Title Block: The Story Behind the Blog

My name is Alison and I am a historian. That's my job title....no lie. The title probably sounds more badass to me than to most people, but I love it.  I'm fortunate enough to count myself among the few lucky people who love what they do for a living. Although I love researching the past for work, what I find most rewarding is researching my surroundings. Having lived in the Trenton, New Jersey area my whole life (if you ignore 4 years in North Carolina for undergrad and 2 years in Philly for grad school), you'd think I'm pretty familiar with my town. The more I research, however, the more I discover I know a lot less than I think.

So I've decided to make it my life's goal to learn as much as possible about the past directly and indirectly related to me.  My hope is that in the future this blog will serve as a map of my research methods. My ultimate goal is to produce an illustrated book and/or books detailing the literal and figurative roads traveled before me.  Besides, every historian knows there is nothing better than good documentation.  Primary documents are the most reliable sources, but everything is always open to interpretation.  That's why I want to record this process.  I want my decendents to know my thoughts and reactions.  An African proverb says "Until lions have their historians, tales of the hunt shall always glorify the hunters."  With this endeavor I know I will play dueling roles.  By recording my experience, I'll act as the lion's historian, defending my story before a hunter has the chance to distort it.  But I will enevitably take on the role of the hunter as attempt to uncover the past.  I do promise though, to do my best to avoid glorifying history.  I have about six more quotes about the prejudice of the historian that I could throw in here, but I'll save them for future posts.  I'm sure I'll need them to defend myself.


I apologize to any readers in advance:  this blog may seem a bit ego-centric at times, but the best way to know yourself is to understand from whom and from where you come.  For those of you not related to me, maybe if you stick with me you can learn something from my experiences and mistakes.  I'll do my best to post tips along the way.  One thing I know for sure is that you can discover some of your best sources in the most unlikely of places, so as a historian, you really have to keep your eyes peeled.

Posts will probably be sporadic.  I'll have to squeeze research in when I can and unfortunately the most promising research venues rarely have weekend hours.  So here we go, firing up the flux capacitor...