http://www.investigations.4-lom.com/2006/10/27/horse-imports-zombie-myth/ Failing better at understanding the past Thu, 20 Nov 2008 10:13:14 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.2 http://www.investigations.4-lom.com/2006/10/27/horse-imports-zombie-myth/#comment-666 Investigations of a Dog » Gentleman Amateurs Mon, 29 Jan 2007 18:39:27 +0000 http://www.investigations.4-lom.com/2006/10/27/horse-imports-zombie-myth/#comment-666 [...] I subscribe to the view that works need to be judged on their own merits. If the research and writing are good, qualifications don’t matter. I put this into practice in my own PhD thesis by citing the works of non-academic historians such as Alan Turton and John Tincey, whose work I admired and found useful. Alan and John both write for Partizan Press, a publisher specialising primarily in books on the English Civil Wars aimed at wargamers, re-enactors, and other amateur enthusiasts (a niche market which demonstrates the inadequacy of the academic description “popular”). This is something that I suspect many academics would look down on, but judged purely on quality and usefulness, their output is worthwhile. My post on Horse Imports: A Zombie Myth demonstrated that basic errors and misunderstandings can be found in the works of academic and non-academic authors alike. [...] [...] I subscribe to the view that works need to be judged on their own merits. If the research and writing are good, qualifications don’t matter. I put this into practice in my own PhD thesis by citing the works of non-academic historians such as Alan Turton and John Tincey, whose work I admired and found useful. Alan and John both write for Partizan Press, a publisher specialising primarily in books on the English Civil Wars aimed at wargamers, re-enactors, and other amateur enthusiasts (a niche market which demonstrates the inadequacy of the academic description “popular”). This is something that I suspect many academics would look down on, but judged purely on quality and usefulness, their output is worthwhile. My post on Horse Imports: A Zombie Myth demonstrated that basic errors and misunderstandings can be found in the works of academic and non-academic authors alike. [...]

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