Thank you, Caroline, for this thoughtful piece on emerging models for Presidential libraries that move toward privatization rather than as custodians of presidential records for the public good, and for transparency,, and of course for the scholarly record in political history. Excellent perspectives here that avoid politicization around particular Presidents and their agendas.
Hey, thanks Craig! I challenged myself to write a quick reaction piece. Since the Center opens this week I had good incentive for an immediate turnaround.
I totally understand. This is an excellent example of providing a fast response that's well informed and grounded in archival theory and Presidential library history (and emerging practices surrounding them). I've read some pretty tendentious pieces in recent months on the Obama Library, and your perspective is very helpful. Of course, there's the Trump library which may push the boundaries of what might be considered a library at all. Obviously the "model" is evolving depending on occupant of the WH.
With deep regret, over the past 25 years I've had to shred many boxes of old (some over 70 years old) law office files, for the obvious reason: the "new" old files needed the storage space.
But with horror, I've watched our court systems, whose files I've roamed for over 40 years in search of things I needed to know about, have been turned over to the giant technocratic eraser of some of the most relevant records of human history from the 20th century.
If you have ever spent any time inside legal archives (and are paying attention) you know you are holding and reading records that display and articulate how our legal systems have really functioned, especially as it relates to the waywardness of our criminal justice systems, and ~ as always ~ the very class-based behaviors of our courts in relation to civil proceedings as well. And, of course, regardless of what state, you stumble over detailed proof of the horrendous treatment of women and fellow citizens with certain ethnic roots that don't gibe with the powers that be.
But thanks to the takeover by "digital minds" of our biology-matters human communities, all that history is being erased, for the machines have no use for how knowledge of the past helps us learn from our mistakes. It truly is horrific in the long term, when you think that given our nature we are not going to prepare ourselves, one another, or our neighborhoods for the oncoming collapse of so much of how we live due to ecological overshoot, so that when the time comes when it might behoove us to try to understand who we were, all the old scrolls that recorded what actually was happening will be long gone right about the time the lights go out.
Thank you, Caroline, for this thoughtful piece on emerging models for Presidential libraries that move toward privatization rather than as custodians of presidential records for the public good, and for transparency,, and of course for the scholarly record in political history. Excellent perspectives here that avoid politicization around particular Presidents and their agendas.
Hey, thanks Craig! I challenged myself to write a quick reaction piece. Since the Center opens this week I had good incentive for an immediate turnaround.
I totally understand. This is an excellent example of providing a fast response that's well informed and grounded in archival theory and Presidential library history (and emerging practices surrounding them). I've read some pretty tendentious pieces in recent months on the Obama Library, and your perspective is very helpful. Of course, there's the Trump library which may push the boundaries of what might be considered a library at all. Obviously the "model" is evolving depending on occupant of the WH.
"The relevant question is not whether Barack Obama is capable of intellectual honesty — he clearly is"
Really?
With deep regret, over the past 25 years I've had to shred many boxes of old (some over 70 years old) law office files, for the obvious reason: the "new" old files needed the storage space.
But with horror, I've watched our court systems, whose files I've roamed for over 40 years in search of things I needed to know about, have been turned over to the giant technocratic eraser of some of the most relevant records of human history from the 20th century.
If you have ever spent any time inside legal archives (and are paying attention) you know you are holding and reading records that display and articulate how our legal systems have really functioned, especially as it relates to the waywardness of our criminal justice systems, and ~ as always ~ the very class-based behaviors of our courts in relation to civil proceedings as well. And, of course, regardless of what state, you stumble over detailed proof of the horrendous treatment of women and fellow citizens with certain ethnic roots that don't gibe with the powers that be.
But thanks to the takeover by "digital minds" of our biology-matters human communities, all that history is being erased, for the machines have no use for how knowledge of the past helps us learn from our mistakes. It truly is horrific in the long term, when you think that given our nature we are not going to prepare ourselves, one another, or our neighborhoods for the oncoming collapse of so much of how we live due to ecological overshoot, so that when the time comes when it might behoove us to try to understand who we were, all the old scrolls that recorded what actually was happening will be long gone right about the time the lights go out.