andrew_gelman_stats andrew_gelman_stats-2010 andrew_gelman_stats-2010-258 knowledge-graph by maker-knowledge-mining
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Introduction: At the sister blog, David Frum writes , of a book by historian Laura Kalman about the politics of the 1970s: As a work of history about the Ford and Carter years, there is nothing seriously wrong with it. The facts are accurate, the writing is clear and the point of view is not tendentious. Once upon a time, such a book might have been useful to somebody. But the question it raises–and it’s not a question about this book alone–is: What’s the point of this kind of history in the age of the Internet? Suppose I’m an undergraduate who stumbles for the first time across the phrase “Proposition 13.” I could, if I were minded, walk over to the university library, pull this book from the shelf and flip to the index. Or I could save myself two hours and Google it. I wouldn’t learn more from a Google search than I’d learn in these pages. But I wouldn’t learn a whole lot less either. As a textbook writer, I think about some of these issues too! I have two things to add to Frum’s rem
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1 At the sister blog, David Frum writes , of a book by historian Laura Kalman about the politics of the 1970s: As a work of history about the Ford and Carter years, there is nothing seriously wrong with it. [sent-1, score-0.571]
2 The facts are accurate, the writing is clear and the point of view is not tendentious. [sent-2, score-0.162]
3 Once upon a time, such a book might have been useful to somebody. [sent-3, score-0.2]
4 But the question it raises–and it’s not a question about this book alone–is: What’s the point of this kind of history in the age of the Internet? [sent-4, score-0.315]
5 ” I could, if I were minded, walk over to the university library, pull this book from the shelf and flip to the index. [sent-6, score-0.274]
6 I wouldn’t learn more from a Google search than I’d learn in these pages. [sent-8, score-0.192]
7 I have two things to add to Frum’s remarks (which seem reasonable to me–I would go so far as to call them “perceptive remarks” except that I haven’t actually seen Kalman’s book, nor have I looked up Proposition 13 on the web, so I’m just taking Frum’s word for it): 1. [sent-11, score-0.097]
8 Kalman’s book can’t be all facts, it must be interpretation also. [sent-12, score-0.2]
9 Don’t get me wrong–Wikipedia, Snopes, and all the rest are great and are admirably effective in responding to controversy and quashing factual errors ( see here and the impressive follow-up on Wikipedia)–but they won’t necessarily give you a clear picture of a complex series of events. [sent-14, score-0.136]
10 As someone who tried (and failed) to write a popular social-science book, I believe more than ever before that people like storytelling. [sent-16, score-0.071]
11 If, like David Frum, you’ve worked closely with famous people during important events, then you can tell stories that are new and relevant. [sent-17, score-0.382]
12 If you’re an academic historian, you’re probably reduce to rehashing stories that you’ve read elsewhere. [sent-18, score-0.462]
13 (If you’re Doris Kearns Goodwin, you’re reduced to copying stories you’ve read your assistants have read and have inadvertently put your name on. [sent-19, score-0.498]
14 ) Rehashing stories is fine–it worked for Shakespeare, Mark Twain, Jeffrey Archer, and the people who compile all those joke books that come out every year. [sent-20, score-0.321]
15 Seriously, though, people do seem to want stories, and the job of a popular history is to tell them and to put them into some sort of logical framework. [sent-22, score-0.25]
16 Frum does get to this point–later on in his review, he criticizes Kalman for slapping down quotes without evaluating them–but I think he’s going too far when he demands that a new book help the reader understand “subtle, far-reaching, and perverse effects. [sent-23, score-0.476]
17 I followed a link in the comments and found this review by Mary Dudziak. [sent-27, score-0.063]
18 I gotta say, though, that the blurbs quoted by Dudziak do not convince me that Kalman is saying anything new or interesting. [sent-28, score-0.138]
19 I mean, the idea that the “weak leadership” of Jimmy Carter “paved the way for the triumph of Ronald Reagan’s forceful conservatism. [sent-29, score-0.165]
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same-blog 1 1.0000002 258 andrew gelman stats-2010-09-05-A review of a review of a review of a decade
Introduction: At the sister blog, David Frum writes , of a book by historian Laura Kalman about the politics of the 1970s: As a work of history about the Ford and Carter years, there is nothing seriously wrong with it. The facts are accurate, the writing is clear and the point of view is not tendentious. Once upon a time, such a book might have been useful to somebody. But the question it raises–and it’s not a question about this book alone–is: What’s the point of this kind of history in the age of the Internet? Suppose I’m an undergraduate who stumbles for the first time across the phrase “Proposition 13.” I could, if I were minded, walk over to the university library, pull this book from the shelf and flip to the index. Or I could save myself two hours and Google it. I wouldn’t learn more from a Google search than I’d learn in these pages. But I wouldn’t learn a whole lot less either. As a textbook writer, I think about some of these issues too! I have two things to add to Frum’s rem
Introduction: Charles Murray wrote a much-discussed new book, “Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010.” David Frum quotes Murray as writing, in an echo of now-forgotten TV personality Tucker Carlson , that the top 5% of incomes “tends to be liberal—right? There’s no getting around it. Every way of answering this question produces a yes.” [I’ve interjected a “perhaps” into the title of this blog post to indicate that I don’t have the exact Murray quote here so I’m relying on David Frum’s interpretation.] Frum does me the favor of citing Red State Blue State as evidence, and I’d like to back this up with some graphs. Frum writes: Say “top 5%” to Murray, and his imagination conjures up everything he dislikes: coastal liberals listening to NPR in their Lexus hybrid SUVs. He sees that image so intensely that no mere number can force him to remember that the top 5% also includes the evangelical Christian assistant coach of a state university football team. . . . To put it i
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Introduction: Last month a history professor sent me a note regarding plagiarism at Arizona State University: Matthew Whitaker, who had received an expedited promotion to full professor and was made Director of a new Center for the Study of Race and Democracy by Provost Elizabeth Capaldi and President Michael Crow, was charged by most of the full professors in the History Faculty with having plagiarized throughout his corpus of work, copying from regular works of scholarship and from web sources. Indeed, in his response, which claimed that the petitioners were racist, Whitaker admitted to plagiarism in his work, defending himself in part by stating that he had not reviewed carefully the research and writing he had hired others to do. . . . What bothered my correspondent was that Whitaker remains an ASU Foundation Professor of History despite all the plaig. According to Whitaker’s webpage , he “is also a highly sought after speaker, having offered commentaries on NPR, PBS, . . . and other medi
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