Henry S. Tanner, Map of North America (1823). Courtesy the David Rumsey Collection

Audiobook of The Martial Imagination Available, Dec 19, 2017

An audio version of The Martial Imagination is available through Amazon.com. Apparently, University Press Audiobooks released this edition, but the group has not listed it on their website. According to Amazon, it would only take you 10 hours and 10 minutes to complete. 

My Copy of The American Elsewhere Arrives, Sep 18, 2017

My copy of The American Elsewhere arrived. I am quite pleased with the final product, and I am grateful to the design team at University Press of Kansas. It possesses a certain, pleasant heft, and the illustrations exhibit clear detail. As I examined it over the weekend, something about the jacket design seemed familiar to me. When I got to the office, I confirmed that the production team used the same typeface that UPK used for Elliott West's The Contested Plains--one of my all-time favorites, but no comparison implied.    

Presented at SHEAR Conference, Philadelphia, July 25, 2017

I very much enjoyed my first SHEAR conference. We met in Philadelphia last week, and I presented a paper, "A Destiny in the Womb of Time" in which I discussed how early nineteenth-century expansionists used future-seeing as a rhetorical strategy. My fellow panelists Susan Branson, Joshua Greenberg, and William Wagner are doing some very interesting work, and I was pleased to be a part of the conversation. Thanks to Dr. Wagner for inviting me. Thanks to Susan Klepp for presiding, to Scott Sandage for his insightful and helpful comments, and to the audience for attending and asking great questions. I managed to sit in on a number of other informative panels, and I commend SHEAR and its membership for convening an instructive and collegial meeting.   

Discussion Panel Accepted for 2018 OAH, May 24, 2017

I will participate in a discussion panel at the annual meeting of the Organization of American Historians held in Sacramento, April 2018. Jon T. Coleman, George T. Díaz, Monica Rico, and I will talk about "21st-Century Westerns: Old and New Forms of Imagining History." 

Cover for The American Elsewhere, May 15, 2017

Here is the cover for The American Elsewhere featuring Charles Deas's Long Jakes (1844). Thanks to the production team at the University Press of Kansas and the folks at the Denver Art Museum for granting permission. For a better view check the The American Elsewhere page, or take a look at the web page at the University Press of Kansas site. 

Guest Speaker for Taos Museum of Art Lunch in Orange, May 5, 2017

I enjoyed the opportunity to speak to a group brought together by the Taos Art Museum at Fechin House. They traveled to Orange to visit the "Branding the American West" exhibit at the Stark Museum of Art. I spoke to them during lunch at the Old Orange Cafe about "The Relics of Taos: The Old Men of Dunton, Hennings, and Ufer," based on my article that appeared in the anthology. I am grateful for the warm conversation and good food. Thanks to Cindy Atkins of the Taos Art Museum and Sarah Boehme and Jennifer Restauri of the Stark Museum for making it happen. 

Tentative Publication Date for "Unquestionable Geographies," April 19, 2017

I have just received word from the Pacific Historical Review that my article, "'Unquestionable Geographies': The Empirical and the Romantic in U.S. Expansionist Cartography, 1810-1848," will appear in the November 2018 issue. The date is tentative, and it is a long wait, but one I trust will be worth it.

The American Elsewhere Typeset Pages and Cover Received, April 18, 2017

The folks at UP Kansas have sent me copies of the cover and the typeset pages for The American Elsewhere. I am quite pleased with both, and I hope to be able to share the cover soon. In the meantime, with red pencil in hand, I turn my attention to indexing and the search for typos.

Audio Book of The Martial Imagination in the Works, March 16, 2017

The rights manager at TAMU Press informed me that they are preparing an audio book edition for The Martial Imagination. It may be available as early as fall of 2017.

Opening of Branding the American West Exhibit at the Stark Museum, March 9, 2017

The Stark Museum of Art, Orange, TX, opened the exhibit for Branding the American West, a joint venture with the Brigham Young University Museum of Art. As one of the contributors to the companion catalogue, I enjoyed the opportunity to attend a special preview, the ribbon cutting, the book signing, and a dinner. My friends and colleagues, Sarah Boehme and Marian Wardle, curators and co-editors of the volume, coordinated this project for over five years, and I am forever grateful that they invited me to participate in this collaboration. The exhibit will continue at the Stark until September 9.  

The American Elsewhere Copyedits Received, February 20, 2017

I have received the copyedits for The American Elsewhere manuscript. I am consistently impressed with the amount of work and the level of detail that copyeditors provide, and I am thankful for their often unheralded contribution to this process. One more step forward, but I have a lot of work yet to do.

Proposal to Present at SHEAR accepted, February 16, 2017

I have just learned that the program committee for the 2017 meeting of the Society for Historians of the Early American Republic has accepted a panel proposal that includes my paper. The conference will take place in Philadelphia, and I will present on "A Destiny in the Womb of Time: U.S. Expansion and Its Prophets" in a session titled "Forecasting the Future in Antebellum America." The panel will include Susan Klepp (chair), Susan Branson, Joshua Greenberg, William Wagner, and Scott Sandage (comment).