Re: National Association of Scholars on the SCS fiasco

This is not *directly* related to the discussion of the recent SCL panel.
I'm copying some friends and colleagues to whom this may seem wholly new,
but they're smart and will pick up the thread.

David Randall is a Swarthmore graduate and Rutgers Ph.D. in History. Lest
anyone judge the Rutgers program (not to mention Swarthmore) negatively
from  Randall's posts, here's a positive review of Stephanie Jones-Rogers'
important new book:
A New Book Speaks Plainly About the Large Role White Women Played in
Perpetuating Slavery
<https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2019%2F02%2F26%2Fbooks%2Freview-they-were-her-property-white-women-slave-owners-stephanie-jones-rogers.html&amp;data=02%7C01%7CCLASSICS-L%40lsv.uky.edu%7C181027fbde79431ecb0b08d69e59ea6d%7C2b30530b69b64457b818481cb53d42ae%7C0%7C0%7C636870506356636418&amp;sdata=aO6%2B%2BdgL4Q4LkTnpj2nIVXHopCcY3spdwx6HjhQbJNs%3D&amp;reserved=0>

I'm well into it. From a classicist's point of view, one of Jones-Rogers'
strengths is to interrogate the records of what former slaves said about
their experience.  Since the interviews in the Federal Writers Project took
place in the 1930s, there are substantial challenges when considering their
accuracy, not to mention the interventions of transcribers, both salutary
for classicists to think about.  This is a topic Moses Finley worked on,
corresponding with Fogel, Engerman, Orlando Patterson, and Genovese, and
reviewing one Genovese book.  Plus working with Franz Boas for four years
on projects that included race in the USA, pre-WWII.

I do have a few further comments on the Jones-Rogers book that I'll gladly
relay to anyone who asks.

Without entering into the debate about the SCL session, I think it's clear
that Dan-el Padilla Peralta is doing very worthwhile scholarship on
important topics (e.g. the Black Atlantic).  In a previous article David
Randall hooted at Padilla Peralta's publishing record ("almost three years
after he was hired at Princeton, he has not yet published his first
monograph") but has laid off that now.

Wisely.

It was already known that Padilla Peralta's book on Rome was under
consideration at Princeton, and its publication might force revision of the
hoot.

For several decades, NAS has been on a tear against the new roles of women
and minorities in the academy.  I've mentioned Steve Balch's instant
condemnation of activist women everywhere when Larry Summers was fired at
Harvard.  I'm very sad to see this continuing, and to see younger writers
in the hunt.  Who will be the next Dinesh D'Souza?  The line is forming...

Dan





On Fri, Mar 1, 2019 at 9:53 AM John Lauritsen <[email protected]>
wrote:

> David Randall, writing for the National Association of Scholars,
> gives a judicious summary of the SCS Williams-Peralta fiasco:
>
> "Clearing the Air: Racial Preferences in Classics Studies Revisited":
>
> https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nas.org%2Farticles%2Fclearing_the_air_racial_preferences_in_classics_studies_revisited&amp;data=02%7C01%7CCLASSICS-L%40lsv.uky.edu%7C181027fbde79431ecb0b08d69e59ea6d%7C2b30530b69b64457b818481cb53d42ae%7C0%7C0%7C636870506356636418&amp;sdata=g%2FszbHeb77uNHVS14c2gcLyP27CMHYffcoNSBmraPRw%3D&amp;reserved=0
>
>
> John Lauritsen, Independent Scholar
>