A Historiographic Essay (also known as a Historiographic Review or, outside of the history discipline, a Literature Review ) is a systematic and comprehensive analysis of books, scholarly articles, and other sources relevant to a specific topic that provides a base of knowledge. Literature reviews are designed to identify and critique the existing literature on a topic, justifying your research by exposing gaps in current research.
This investigation should provide a description, summary, and critical evaluation of works related to the research problem or question, and should also add to the overall knowledge of the topic as well as demonstrating how your research will fit within a larger field of study. A literature review should offer critical analysis of the current research on a topic and that analysis should direct your research objective. This should not be confused with a book review or an annotated bibliography; both are research tools but very different in purpose and scope. A Literature Review can be a stand alone element or part of a larger end product, so be sure you know your assignment. Finally, don't forget to document your process, and keep track of your citations!
The process of writing a literature review is not necessarily a linear process, you will often have to loop back and refine your topic, try new searches and altar your plans. The info graphic above illustrates this process. It also reminds you to continually keep track of your research by citing sources and creating a bibliography.
Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article.
historiography , the writing of history , especially the writing of history based on the critical examination of sources, the selection of particular details from the authentic materials in those sources, and the synthesis of those details into a narrative that stands the test of critical examination. The term historiography also refers to the theory and history of historical writing.
Modern historians aim to reconstruct a record of human activities and to achieve a more profound understanding of them. This conception of their task is quite recent, dating from the development in the late 18th and early 19th centuries of “scientific” history and the simultaneous rise of history as an academic profession. It springs from an outlook that is very new in human experience: the assumption that the study of history is a natural, inevitable human activity. Before the late 18th century, historiography did not stand at the centre of any civilization. History was almost never an important part of regular education , and it never claimed to provide an interpretation of human life as a whole. This larger ambition was more appropriate to religion , philosophy , and perhaps poetry and other imaginative literature .
All human cultures tell stories about the past. Deeds of ancestors, heroes, gods, or animals sacred to particular peoples were chanted and memorized long before there was any writing with which to record them. Their truth was authenticated by the very fact of their continued repetition. History, which may be defined as an account that purports to be true of events and ways of thinking and feeling in some part of the human past, stems from this archetypal human narrative activity.
While sharing a common ancestry with myth , legend , epic poetry , and the novel , history has of course diverged from these forms. Its claim to truth is based in part on the fact that all the persons or events it describes really existed or occurred at some time in the past. Historians can say nothing about these persons or events that cannot be supported, or at least suggested, by some kind of documentary evidence. Such evidence customarily takes the form of something written, such as a letter, a law, an administrative record, or the account of some previous historian. In addition, historians sometimes create their own evidence by interviewing people. In the 20th century the scope of historical evidence was greatly expanded to include, among many other things, aerial photographs, the rings of trees, old coins, clothes, motion pictures, and houses. Modern historians have determined the age of the Shroud of Turin , which purportedly bears the image of Jesus , through carbon-14 dating and have discredited the claim of Anna Anderson to be the grand duchess Anastasia , the daughter of Tsar Nicholas II , through DNA testing
Just as the methods at the disposal of historians have expanded, so have the subjects in they have become interested. Many of the indigenous peoples of Africa, the Americas, and Polynesia, for example, were long dismissed by Europeans as having no precolonial history, because they did not keep written records before the arrival of European explorers. However, sophisticated study of oral traditions, combined with advances in archaeology , has made it possible to discover a good deal about the civilizations and empires that flourished in these regions before European contact.
Historians have also studied new social classes . The earliest histories were mostly stories of disasters—floods, famines, and plagues—or of wars, including the statesmen and generals who figured in them. In the 20th century, however, historians shifted their focus from statesmen and generals to ordinary workers and soldiers. Until relatively recent times, however, most men and virtually all women were excluded from history because they were unable to write. Virtually all that was known about them passed through the filter of the attitudes of literate elites. The challenge of seeing through that filter has been met by historians in various ways. One way is to make use of nontraditional sources—for example, personal documents, such as wills or marriage contracts. Another is to look at the records of localities rather than of central governments.
Through these means even the most oppressed peoples—African-American slaves or medieval heretics , for example—have had at least some of their history restored. Since the 20th century some historians have also become interested in psychological repression—i.e., in attitudes and actions that require psychological insight and even diagnosis to recover and understand. For the first time, the claim of historians to deal with the feelings as well as the thoughts of people in any part of the human past has been made good.
None of this is to say that history writing has assumed a perfect or completed form. It will never do so: examination of its past reveals remarkable changes in historical consciousness rather than steady progress toward the standards of research and writing that represent the best that historians can do today. Nevertheless, 21st-century historians understand the pasts of more people more completely and more accurately than their predecessors did. This article demonstrates the scope of that accomplishment and how it came to be achieved.
His 423/his 489: historiography assignment, historiography basics, what is historiography, how to find seminal works & major thinkers, 1. start with what you have, 2. find a historiographical essay related to your topic, 3. search for specific article & cross-ref.
What is Historiography?
A historiography is a summary of the historical writings on a particular topic - the history of eugenics in America, or the history of epidemics, for example. It sets out in broad terms the range of debate and approaches to the topic. It identifies the major thinkers and arguments , and establishes connections between them. If there have been major changes in the way a particular topic has been approached over time, the historiography identifies them.
Unlike a research paper, a historiography paper is not a study of a historical subject; instead, it is an analysis of the way in which historians have interpreted that topic.
How to Write a Historiography?
The most important step in writing a historiography is to become familiar with the history of your topic in broad terms. A good historiography is written from a position of authority on a topic.
A historiography is best situated early on in an essay, preferably in the introduction in order to familiarize the reader with the topic and to set out the scope of previous work in broad terms.
Your historiography should establish:
Your historiography may also explain:
A good historiography will present this information in a way that shows the connections between these major works. For example, does one work respond to an argument set out in another? Does it expand on that argument or disagree with it? A good historiography will also situate the author's work within the dialogue, explaining whether his or her thesis builds on or rejects the work that has come before.
Still a little unsure of what a historiography is ? Check out these great examples or get help .
Adapated from: http://www.trentu.ca/history/workbook/historiography.php
Clear, quick video defining historiography.
3. Search for Specific Article & Cross-Reference
The following may refer you to important works, thinkers, or schools of thought on your topic.
They can also help you identify relevant authors, concepts, works, or keywords for searching the library catalogue , history databases , or specific history of medicine journals .
There are lots of ways to find historiographical essays. Here's one strategy:
Did you know when a bibliographic database (ex. America: History & Life or MEDLINE) receives an article, indexers apply a certain number of SUBJECT HEADINGS to an article to describe the article's content? Did you know that those subject headings are searchable? Did you know that Historiography is a subject heading?
The following sample search strategies in 3 databases of history secondary sources available in EbscoHost (ex. America: History & Life; History of Science Technology and Medicine; Historical Abstracts) are a quick way to find historiographical essays.
1. DE "Historiography" AND (psychiatry OR psychoanalysis OR psychosurgery)
2. DE "Historiography" AND social AND medicine
3. DE "Historiography" AND (eugenics OR social darwinism)
What's going on here?
DE "Historiography" -> searches Historiography as the SUBJECT of the article. The DE code tells these particular databases to search the subject field. Other databases use different codes (ex. CINAHL uses MH). Library databases all have helpful HELP features that tell you which code searches which field.
DE "Historiography" is combined with keywords on a topic (ie. psychiatry OR psychoanalysis OR psychosurgery)
This query is applied to three databases, and results that have Historiography in the subject field AND psychiatry OR psychoanalysis OR psychosurgery in the text fields are retrieved.
Now try to make a search strategy of your own!
Want more HELP with databases?
Use a citation database like SCOPUS or WEB of SCIENCE to search for a specific article, and use the database features to find its references, see who has cited it, and search for any related citations.
For example, if I search SCOPUS for ' Grand Narrative and Its Discontent: Medical History in the Social Transformation of American Medicine ' in the Article Title field, I see that it has been cited 7 times in the SCOPUS database and that there are 5,113 other citations that share references with my article. I can also easily link to the full-text or catalogue records for each of the author's references.
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A historiography (noun) or historiographical paper is an analysis of the interpretations of a specific topic written by past historians.
The major purpose of writing a historiographical paper is to convey the scholarship of other historians on a particular subject, rather than to analyze the subject itself.
Thus, a good historiography does the following:
Parts of a historiography.
Questions of historiography include the following:
As you can tell, the underlying sentiment of historiography is one of skepticism. This is due to the recognition that historians do have agendas and do select sources with the intent of "proving" certain preconceived notions. History is therefore never truly "objective," but always a construct that presents the historian's view of things.
General source questions (the five ws).
An essay is a piece of sustained writing in response to a question, topic or issue. Essays are commonly used for assessing and evaluating student progress in history. History essays test a range of skills including historical understanding, interpretation and analysis, planning, research and writing.
To write an effective essay, students should examine the question, understand its focus and requirements, acquire information and evidence through research, then construct a clear and well-organised response. Writing a good history essay should be rigorous and challenging, even for stronger students. As with other skills, essay writing develops and improves over time. Each essay you complete helps you become more competent and confident in exercising these skills.
This is an obvious tip but one sadly neglected by some students. The first step to writing a good essay, whatever the subject or topic, is to give plenty of thought to the question.
An essay question will set some kind of task or challenge. It might ask you to explain the causes and/or effects of a particular event or situation. It might ask if you agree or disagree with a statement. It might ask you to describe and analyse the causes and/or effects of a particular action or event. Or it might ask you to evaluate the relative significance of a person, group or event.
You should begin by reading the essay question several times. Underline, highlight or annotate keywords or terms in the text of the question. Think about what it requires you to do. Who or what does it want you to concentrate on? Does it state or imply a particular timeframe? What problem or issue does it want you to address?
Every essay should begin with a written plan. Start constructing a plan as soon as you have received your essay question and given it some thought.
Prepare for research by brainstorming and jotting down your thoughts and ideas. What are your initial responses or thoughts about the question? What topics, events, people or issues are connected with the question? Do any additional questions or issues flow from the question? What topics or events do you need to learn more about? What historians or sources might be useful?
If you encounter a mental ‘brick wall’ or are uncertain about how to approach the question, don’t hesitate to discuss it with someone else. Consult your teacher, a capable classmate or someone you trust. Bear in mind too that once you start researching, your plan may change as you locate new information.
After studying the question and developing an initial plan, start to gather information and evidence.
Most will start by reading an overview of the topic or issue, usually in some reliable secondary sources. This will refresh or build your existing understanding of the topic and provide a basis for further questions or investigation.
Your research should take shape from here, guided by the essay question and your own planning. Identify terms or concepts you do not know and find out what they mean. As you locate information, ask yourself if it is relevant or useful for addressing the question. Be creative with your research, looking in a variety of places.
If you have difficulty locating information, seek advice from your teacher or someone you trust.
All good history essays have a clear and strong contention. A contention is the main idea or argument of your essay. It serves both as an answer to the question and the focal point of your writing.
Ideally, you should be able to express your contention as a single sentence. For example, the following contention might form the basis of an essay question on the rise of the Nazis:
Q. Why did the Nazi Party win 37 per cent of the vote in July 1932? A. The Nazi Party’s electoral success of 1932 was a result of economic suffering caused by the Great Depression, public dissatisfaction with the Weimar Republic’s democratic political system and mainstream parties, and Nazi propaganda that promised a return to traditional social, political and economic values.
An essay using this contention would then go on to explain and justify these statements in greater detail. It will also support the contention with argument and evidence.
At some point in your research, you should begin thinking about a contention for your essay. Remember, you should be able to express it briefly as if addressing the essay question in a single sentence, or summing up in a debate.
Try to frame your contention so that is strong, authoritative and convincing. It should sound like the voice of someone well informed about the subject and confident about their answer.
Once most of your research is complete and you have a strong contention, start jotting down a possible essay structure. This need not be complicated, a few lines or dot points is ample.
Every essay must have an introduction, a body of several paragraphs and a conclusion. Your paragraphs should be well organised and follow a logical sequence.
You can organise paragraphs in two ways: chronologically (covering events or topics in the order they occurred) or thematically (covering events or topics based on their relevance or significance). Every paragraph should be clearly signposted in the topic sentence.
Once you have finalised a plan for your essay, commence your draft.
Write a compelling introduction
Many consider the introduction to be the most important part of an essay. It is important for several reasons. It is the reader’s first experience of your essay. It is where you first address the question and express your contention. It is also where you lay out or ‘signpost’ the direction your essay will take.
Aim for an introduction that is clear, confident and punchy. Get straight to the point – do not waste time with a rambling or storytelling introduction.
Start by providing a little context, then address the question, articulate your contention and indicate what direction your essay will take.
Many history students fall into the trap of writing short paragraphs, sometimes containing as little as one or two sentences. A good history essay contains paragraphs that are themselves ‘mini-essays’, usually between 100-200 words each.
A paragraph should focus on one topic or issue only – but it should contain a thorough exploration of that topic or issue.
A good paragraph will begin with an effective opening sentence, sometimes called a topic sentence or signposting sentence. This sentence introduces the paragraph topic and briefly explains its significance to the question and your contention. Good paragraphs also contain thorough explanations, some analysis and evidence, and perhaps a quotation or two.
The conclusion is the final paragraph of your essay. A good conclusion should do two things. First, it should reiterate or restate the contention of your essay. Second, it should close off your essay, ideally with a polished ending that is not abrupt or awkward.
One effective way to do this is with a brief summary of ‘what happened next’. For example, an essay discussing Hitler’s rise to power in 1933 might close with a couple of sentences about how he consolidated and strengthened his power in 1934-35.
Your conclusion need not be as long or as developed as your body paragraphs. You should avoid introducing new information or evidence in the conclusion.
A history essay is only likely to succeed if it is appropriately referenced. Your essay should support its information, ideas and arguments with citations or references to reliable sources.
Referencing not only acknowledges the work of others, but it also gives authority to your writing and provides the teacher or assessor with an insight into your research. More information on referencing a piece of history writing can be found here .
Every essay should be proofread, edited and, if necessary, re-drafted before being submitted for assessment. Essays should ideally be completed well before their due date then put aside for a day or two before proofreading.
When proofreading, look first for spelling and grammatical errors, typographical mistakes, incorrect dates or other errors of fact.
Think then about how you can improve the clarity, tone and structure of your essay. Does your essay follow a logical structure or sequence? Is the signposting in your essay clear and effective? Are some sentences too long or ‘rambling’? Do you repeat yourself? Do paragraphs need to be expanded, fine-tuned or strengthened with more evidence?
Read your essay aloud, either to yourself or another person. Seek feedback and advice from a good writer or someone you trust (they need not have expertise in history, only in effective writing).
You may also find our page on writing for history useful.
Citation information Title : ‘Writing a history essay’ Authors : Jennifer Llewellyn, Steve Thompson Publisher : Alpha History URL : https://alphahistory.com/writing-a-history-essay/ Date published : April 13, 2020 Date updated : December 20, 2022 Date accessed : Today’s date Copyright : The content on this page may not be republished without our express permission. For more information on usage, please refer to our Terms of Use.
In addition to using the sources identified below, a useful strategy to search for historiographical literature in library catalogs and article databases is to search for:
historiograph* (historiography OR historiographical) AND particular subject area(s)
History is a classical intellectual/research discipline with roots stretching back for centuries. As Such, History has its own, complex tradition of literature review called “historiography.” Simply defined, Historiography is the History of History – that is, the study of the History produced and written on a given project, including:
There are also many books dedicated to historiography – both as a discipline (that is, books dedicate to the general theory, philosophy and practice of historiography) as well as books reviewing historiographies of scholarship in particular areas of history.
The American Historical Review is the seminal journal published in the United States dedicated to Historiography on all (not just U.S.) historical topics.
There are several excellent sources to identify key historians and key works in particular fields (whether subject, temporal, or geographically based). These may also be helpful in preparing for qualifying exams as they provide overviews of the historiography on given topics as well as the frameworks and theoretical orientations associated and/or applied with/to them. Unfortunately the print works below are dated; much new history has been written since their publication!
Oxford Bibliographies : Annotated bibliographies and Bibliographic Essays on a wide range of subjects which not only point to excellent publications, but also provide examples of bibliographic essays, which are closely related to historiographical essays and literature reviews.
A historiography is a survey of the historical research conducted on a certain topic, for example the history of midwifery in the United States. Historiography is often called "the history of history," because they assess what research has been conducted on the topic, what was said and how primary sources were analyzed, and how certain arguments compare and contrast to one another within the broader context of the scholarly record.
To use our example above, a historiography of the history of midwifery in the United States would discuss which historians have researched midwifery in the US, what analytical lens did they use, what argument did they make, and how their argument sits against others' and in the scope of the research on the topic.
Historiographies will:
The purpose of a historiography is to discuss the research conducted by other historians on the topic, not to perform original research or commentary on the subject itself.
You are creating a survey of the research that has been conducted on a topic, so you will, of course, need to discover and become familiar with the notable scholars and arguments on that topic. There are a couple strategies you can use to find these figures and perspectives:
As you search for and collect resources related to your topic, make note of common themes or analyses that the scholar's are making. A historiography should not only identify the prominent scholars and arguments on a topic - they need to set those arguments in context with each other and with scholarly trends over time.
Once you have pinpointed the approach and type of history, you can then compare and contrast with your sources:
When you have found commonalities in perspective, approach, or type, then you can use these to help organize your paper.
Examples of Historiographies
Discovery Browse Databases
Collier Library Kilby School Library
The biggest assessment task you will be required to complete is a written research essay which develops an argument and uses a range of sources.
All types of assessment tasks will need you to use essay-writing skills in some form, but their fundamental structure and purpose remains the same.
Therefore, learning how to write essays well is central to achieving high marks in History.
A History essay is a structured argument that provides historical evidence to substantiate its points.
To achieve the correct structure for your argument, it is crucial to understand the separate parts that make up a written essay.
If you understand how each part works and fits into the overall essay, you are well on the way to creating a great assessment piece.
Most essays will require you to write:
Explanations for how to structure and write each of these paragraphs can be found below, along with examples of each:
How to write an Introductory Paragraph
This page explains the purpose of an introduction, how to structure one and provides examples for you to read.
How to write Body Paragraphs
This page explains the purpose of body paragraphs, how to structure them and provides examples for you to read.
How to write a Conclusion
This page explains the purpose of conclusions, how to structure them and provides examples for you to read.
What do you need help with, download ready-to-use digital learning resources.
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A quick search in the library catalog using "Historiography" as a keyword will get you a host of books on a variety of subjects.
To find a historiography of a particular subject, you can use the following search structure: specific topic name AND historiography
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Officially, historiography is “the writing of history” but it can generally be thought to refer to other historians’ perspectives on a historical event or figure . It is crucial you include historiography in your essays. Especially if you are aiming for a high score (6+) in IB History. The IB states in their mark scheme that in order to receive a 13-15 on a paper there must be “an evaluation of different perspectives, and it must be integrated effectively into the answer.”
It can be quite difficult at first to memorise and incorporate historiography naturally into your essays. This is usually because it is quite specific and a new concept for most students. However, there are two ways to make this aspect of IB History a little easier.
Throughout your course, you will encounter historiography through your teacher, textbooks, or personal external research. Whenever you find a quote or a school of thought, note it down in a separate document or spreadsheet. If you are able to, create a shared spreadsheet with your classmates. Each student can update then it with any useful historiography that they find. You can further organise this spreadsheet by including additional columns for schools of thought or specific topics. Having all of your historiographies in one collective place makes it a lot easier to review them rather than having to look through pages and pages of notes.
Furthermore, you can use flashcards to help memorise some specific quotes or overarching perspectives. Write the historian or school of thought on one side. On the other side of the flashcard, write their quote or what the explanation of the perspective is. Go through them periodically and it will help you to memorise them in the long term.
With regards to which historiography to memorise, it is important to remember that it will be incredibly difficult to memorise every piece of historiography relating to your curriculum. This is Especially if there are many long quotes. Try and find historiography that can be applicable to large portions of your curriculum’s content and memorise those. That way, you can incorporate that historiography into a variety of different essay topics.
You can also memorise an overview of a historian’s perspective or a smaller section of their quote, rather than memorising the entirety of the quote provided. As cliche as the saying is: “work smarter, not harder”. Only choose the most relevant and versatile pieces of historiography instead of simply memorising everything.
One example from my personal curriculum is with Paper 2 Authoritarian States, specifically Hitler’s Rise to Power. I always used Ian Kershaw’s Hitler Myth . This is the idea that Hitler’s charisma and oratory skills were the main reasons for the Nazi Party’s success. This was so useful for this particular topic because I did not have to memorise long quotes. On top of that, it fit into most Rise to Power questions that came up in exams.
When incorporating historiography into your essays, it is important to remember that you should not simply be mentioning historians or schools of thought for the sake of doing so. Historiography should not replace your arguments but instead support them. One way to ensure this is to build your argument first and incorporate historiography towards the end of your paragraph. You can use phrases such as:
Once you have added historiography to your argument, offer your personal opinion on it in the context of your essay and evaluate that piece of historiography. Do you agree with this historian or school of thought, and why or why not? This helps to show that you truly understand what it is you are talking about. It also shows that the historiography is actually adding value to your essay.
One example where I did this in an essay was for the following exam question:
“Discuss the view that the use of force was the main method used to establish authoritarian rule in one state you have studied.”
“One of the more successful ways in which the Nazis rose to power was through Hitler’s cult of personality and his oratory skills. Kershaw was a strong proponent of the ‘Hitler Myth’ which is the idea that Hitler was successful for the Nazi’s rise to power and that, without him, the Nazi party would not have succeeded. Kershaw stated that it was Hitler that engaged and persuaded many people who would have otherwise only been marginally interested in the NSDAP.” (Cho, 2022)
At the end of the day, it is more important to have strong arguments and evidence rather than numerous pieces of historiography. Nevertheless, for those hoping to receive higher grades in IB History, remember to be selective in what you choose to memorise and to evaluate the historiography in your essay!
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Subject: History
Age range: 16+
Resource type: Lesson (complete)
Last updated
22 August 2024
The essay booklet contains all the Part 4 past paper questions, and a range of suggested questions based on patterns.
It can be used to plan essays on the wartime economy, opposition during WW2, the intensification of the Nazis’ racial policy and the reasons Germany lost WW2.
It was made using 5 AS textbooks and all the past papers.
The resource was produced by an experienced teacher and used to prepare pupils who achieved A grades in the examination.
It is in line with assessment requirements and can be used to support improvements in writing
Tes paid licence How can I reuse this?
A bundle is a package of resources grouped together to teach a particular topic, or a series of lessons, in one place.
This pack of can be used for IAS, AS and GCSE History. It can be used to plan essays on the wartime economy, opposition during WW2, the intensification of the Nazis' racial policies, including the Final Solution, and the reasons Germany lost WW2. Each lesson includes detailed notes, relevant past paper questions, suggested questions and plans. Lessons were made using 5 AS textbooks and all the past papers. It also includes an essay planning booklet covering a full range of past papers and suggested questions. The resources were produced by an experienced teacher and used to prepare pupils who achieved A grades in the examination. They are in line with assessment requirements and can be used to support improvements in writing.
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Women Who Shaped History
A Smithsonian magazine special report
History | July 9, 2024
The self-taught artist is getting her first museum exhibition in New York City, where she nurtured her nascent interest in photography
Ellen Wexler
Assistant Editor, Humanities
Vivian Maier took more than 150,000 photographs as she scoured the streets of New York and Chicago. She rarely looked at them; often, she didn’t even develop the negatives. Without any formal training, she created a sprawling body of work that demonstrated a wholly original way of looking at the world. Today, she is considered one of the best street photographers of the 20th century.
Maier’s photos provide audiences with a tantalizing peek behind the curtain into a remarkable mind. But she never intended to have an audience. A nanny by trade, she rarely showed anyone her prints. In her final years, she stashed five decades of work in storage lockers, which she eventually stopped paying for. Their contents went to auction in 2007.
Many of Maier’s photos ended up with amateur historian John Maloof , who purchased 30,000 negatives for about $400. In the years that followed, he sought out other collectors who had purchased boxes from the same lockers. He didn’t learn the photographer’s identity until 2009, when he found her name scrawled on an envelope among the negatives. A quick Google search revealed that Maier had died just a few days earlier. Uncertain of how to proceed, Maloof started posting her images online.
“I guess my question is, what do I do with this stuff?” he wrote in a Flickr post . “Is this type of work worthy of exhibitions, a book? Or do bodies of work like this come up often? Any direction would be great.”
Maier quickly became a sensation. Everyone wanted to know about the recluse who had so adeptly captured 20th-century America. Her life and work have since been the subject of a best-selling book , a documentary and exhibitions around the world .
Now, the self-taught photographer is headlining her first major American retrospective. “ Vivian Maier: Unseen Work ,” which is currently on view at Fotografiska New York, features some 230 pieces from the 1950s through the 1990s, including black-and-white and color photos, vintage and modern prints, films, and sound recordings. The show is also billed as the first museum exhibition in Maier’s hometown, the city where she nurtured her nascent interest in photography.
Born in New York City in 1926, Maier grew up mostly in France, where she began experimenting with a Kodak Brownie , an affordable early camera designed for amateurs. After returning to New York in 1951, she purchased a Rolleiflex , a high-end camera held at the waist, and began developing her signature style: images of everyday life framed with a stark humor and intuitive understanding of human emotion. She started working as a governess, a role that allowed her to spend hours wandering the city, children in tow, as she snapped away.
She left New York about five years later, when she secured a job as a nanny for three boys—John, Lane and Matthew Gensburg—in the Chicago suburbs. The family was devoted to Maier, though they knew very little about her. The boys remember attending art films and picking wild strawberries as her charges, but they don’t recall her ever mentioning any family or friends. Their parents knew that Maier traveled—they would hire a replacement nanny in her absence—but they didn’t know where she went.
“You really wouldn’t ask her about it at all,” Nancy Gensburg, the boys’ mother, told Chicago magazine in 2010. “I mean, you could, but she was private. Period.”
Despite Maier’s reclusive tendencies, the Gensburgs knew about her photography. It would have been difficult to hide. After all, she lived with the family and had a private bathroom, which she used as a darkroom to develop black-and-white photos herself. The Gensburgs frequently witnessed her taking photos; on rare occasions, she even showed them her prints.
Maier stayed with the Gensburgs until the early 1970s, when the boys were too old for a nanny. She spent the next few decades working in other caretaking roles, though she doesn’t appear to have developed a similar relationship with these families, who viewed her as a competent caregiver with an eccentric personality. Most never saw her prints, though they do remember her moving into their homes with hundreds of boxes of photos in tow.
“I once saw her taking a picture inside a refuse can,” talk show host Phil Donahue, who employed Maier as a nanny for less than a year, told Chicago magazine. “I never remotely thought that what she was doing would have some special artistic value.”
Meanwhile, the Gensburgs kept in touch. As Maier grew older, they took care of her, eventually moving her to a nursing home. They never knew about the storage lockers. When she died at age 83, a short obituary appeared in the Chicago Tribune , describing her as a “second mother” to the three boys, a “free and kindred spirit,” and a “movie critic and photographer extraordinaire.”
Maier’s mysterious backstory is a large part of her present-day appeal. Fans are captivated by the photos, but they’re also intrigued by the reclusive nanny who developed her talents in secret. “Vivian Maier the mystery, the discovery and the work—those three parts together are difficult to separate,” Anne Morin, curator of the new exhibition, tells CNN .
The show is meant to focus on the work rather than the mystery. As Morin says to the Art Newspaper , she hopes to avoid “imposing an overexposed interpretation of her character.” Instead, the exhibition aims to elevate Maier’s name to the level of other famous street photographers—such as Robert Frank and Diane Arbus —and take on the daunting task of examining her large oeuvre.
“In ten years, we could do another completely different show,” Morin tells CNN. “She has more than enough material to bring to the table.”
The subjects of Maier’s street photos ran the gamut, but she often turned her lens toward “people on the margins of society who weren’t usually photographed and of whom images were rarely published,” per a statement from Fotografiska New York. The Gensburg boys recall her taking them all over the city, adamant that they witness what life was like beyond the confines of their affluent suburb.
The exhibition is organized thematically, with sections devoted to Maier’s famous street photos, her experimental abstract compositions and her stylized self-portraits. The self-portraits, which frequently incorporate mirrors and reflections, amplify her enigmatic qualities, usually showing her with a deadpan, focused expression. Her voice can be heard in numerous audio recordings, which play throughout the exhibition. As such, even as the show focuses on the work, Maier the person is still a frequent presence in it.
“The paradox of Vivian Maier is that the lifetime of anonymity that has captured the public imagination persists in the work,” writes art critic Arthur Lubow for the New York Times , adding, “An artist uses a camera as a tool of self-expression. Maier was a supremely gifted chameleon. After immersing myself in her work, other than detecting a certain wryness, I could not get much sense of her sensibility.”
The artist undoubtedly possessed a curiosity about her immediate surroundings, which she photographed with a “lack of self-consciousness,” Sophie Wright, the New York museum’s director, tells CNN. “There’s no audience in mind.” There is no evidence that Maier wondered about her viewers—or that she ever imagined having viewers in the first place. They, however, will never stop wondering about her.
“ Vivian Maier: Unseen Work ” is on view at Fotografiska New York through September 29.
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Essay: Is Nicaragua’s Dictatorship Nearing Its End?
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How the once-revolutionary ortega regime may have destined itself to the dustbin of history..
This summer marks the 45th anniversary of the Nicaraguan Revolution, when the guerilla forces of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) overthrew the Somoza dictatorship, the U.S.-backed dynasty that had ruled the country for more than 40 years. On July 19, 1979, after nearly two decades of struggle, armed Sandinistas entered the capital of Managua victorious, their red and black bandanas heralding a new era of socialist transformation.
The jubilation of victory was quickly tempered by the exigencies of war. From 1980 to 1989, a coalition of counterrevolutionary forces known as the Contras—who were financed and trained by the United States during the Reagan administration—waged a ruthless but unsuccessful terror campaign to unseat the revolutionary government. Between 30,000 and 40,0000 people died in the ensuing violence.
FSLN commander Daniel Ortega emerged as the leader of the revolutionary junta, and he was elected president in 1984. Six years later, Ortega was voted out by a coalition of opposition groups. In 2007, he was reelected and has served as president ever since, since the National Assembly modified the Nicaraguan Constitution in 2014 to allow for his indefinite reelection in contests widely recognized as shams.
Today, 17 years into Ortega’s rule, the 1979 revolution’s promise of liberation and equality has become little more than window dressing for another iron-fisted dictatorship. It is not one of the proletariat or of the people, but of another all-powerful family, led by Ortega and his wife, Rosario Murillo, who is often referred to as his “co-president.” But as the two tighten their grip on power, it seems to be slipping through their fingers, and their rule appears increasingly precarious.
Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega (right) and his wife, Vice-President Rosario Murillo, flash the V sign during the commemoration of the 40th anniversary of the Sandinista-led Nicaraguan Revolution, seen in Managua on July 19, 2019. Inti Ocon/AFP via Getty Images
For nearly two decades, “the commander” and “comrade Rosario” have consolidated power through a series of radical legislative and constitutional changes. Murillo has steadily increased her influence since 2008, when she was appointed president of the Councils of Citizen Power , party-state committees that ensured loyalty to the regime and distributed resources at the local level. She assumed Nicaragua’s vice presidency in 2017 after a constitutional reform allowed for her election despite being the president’s wife.
“Ortega’s dictatorship is unique insofar as he is singularly uncharismatic and is uninterested in direct appeals to the Nicaraguan people that other more personalist populist leaders rely on to bolster support,” said Michael Paarlberg, an associate fellow at the Washington, D.C.-based Institute for Policy Studies and a professor of political science at Virginia Commonwealth University. Instead, Paarlberg added, Ortega “has had to rely chiefly on repression, both to create fear and to shrink the pool of potential rivals within civil society, religious institutions, and NGOs,” or nongovernmental organizations.
Any inkling of dissent in Nicaragua has been met with ruthless military violence. In 2018, soldiers, police, and paramilitary death squads crushed a civil rebellion, leaving more than 350 people dead, at least 2,000 injured, and thousands more imprisoned, disappeared, or exiled. Ortega and Murillo have since further entrenched their dictatorship, clamping down on the opposition, securing control of the judiciary and legislature, purging the party-state apparatus of perceived traitors, and criminalizing civil society.
The government has outlawed public protest; seized the offices and assets of dozens of news outlets; revoked the legal standing of thousands of nonprofit organizations, universities, and churches—most recently in mid-August, when the regime banned 1,500 nonprofit organizations in a single day—and denounced hundreds of students, journalists, literary figures, and human rights defenders as “foreign agents,” stripping them of their citizenship. Since 2018, more than 300,000 Nicaraguans have sought asylum in neighboring Costa Rica—and U.S. Customs and Border Protection has encountered nearly 440,000 at the southern border of the United States. Many hope to win an asylum claim. Today, 1.5 million Nicaraguans —roughly 22 percent of the country’s population—live outside the borders of their homeland.
A masked member of a riot police force gestures to a photographer during a protest against Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega’s government, seen in Managua on Sept. 16, 2018. Inti Ocon/AFP via Getty Images
Recently, however, the Ortega dictatorship has appeared increasingly precarious as the presidential couple pluck away at the base of their own house of cards. Ortega and Murillo are getting old—they are 78 and 73, respectively—and the prospect of a democratic opening hangs over their hopes for smooth dynastic succession. All signs indicate that the couple is positioning their son Laureano to succeed his mother after she inherits the presidential crown from her husband.
But as Ortega and Murillo grow more isolated and self-destructive—executing mass purges and banning civil society groups—their popularity continues to wane, down to about 15 percent by last Gallup count in 2023. As their inner circle shrinks and their enemies multiply, a seamless succession appears increasingly unlikely.
For many observers, the question is not whether the dictatorship will implode, but when and how.
“There is no question that the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo is getting weaker and weaker every day,” said Tamara Dávila , a leader of the opposition coalition Blue and White National Unity who is now exiled in the United States. Dávila believes that Ortega’s death or departure from office could create the possibility for a democratic opening despite the regime’s hopes for dynastic succession.
“The question is what that possibility will look like,” she said.
Since February 2023, when the regime released, banished, and denaturalized Dávila and 221 other political prisoners, Nicaragua has drifted out of the international spotlight. But repression and terror continue apace; according to the most current and commonly cited estimate, at least 141 political prisoners languish in Nicaragua’s prisons, according to the United Nations, enduring isolation, torture, and other inhumane conditions.
Dora María Téllez, a celebrated former Sandinista commander, was one of the 222 dissidents imprisoned and then exiled by the Ortega-Murillo regime. She said that the real number of political prisoners in Nicaragua is much higher than 141. “Families are afraid to report people as political prisoners. So there’s probably a little over 250 in total,” she told me in a recent interview. “But it’s a system of revolving doors: They let some out, they bring more in. … It’s a mechanism of repression that the Ortega-Murillo regime uses to keep the whole country intimidated.”
As recently as April, police intensified patrols in Nicaragua’s major cities, detaining five family members of protesters who were killed during the 2018 crackdown. On April 15, the body of opposition activist Carlos Alberto Garcia Suárez was found in a garbage dump in the city of Jinotepe. His corpse was badly burned, but police ruled out foul play, and the coroner ordered an immediate burial without an autopsy.
What is left of the opposition in the country is small and operates in secrecy.
A protester is assisted after being wounded by a rubber bullet during a demonstration to demand the release of political prisoners during clashes between anti-government protesters and riot police in Managua on Sept. 21, 2019. Inti Ocon/AFP via Getty Images
Power in Nicaragua is structured vertically. Members of Ortega and Murillo’s loyal inner circle have some influence over decision-making, but their main role is administrative: All policy decisions lie in the hands of the ruling couple. Dismissals for perceived disloyalty are routine, and purges are increasingly common. Often, they are carried out under the personal direction of Murillo, maneuvering to eliminate perceived threats to her presumed succession.
No one is immune: Friends and close relatives of the couple have been branded traitors and remanded to El Chipote prison or exiled. In 2021, the former Sandinista commander Hugo Torres Jiménez, who risked his life securing Ortega’s release from prison in 1974, was prosecuted by the regime as a traitor. Torres had served as vice president of an opposition party led by ex-Sandinistas and was a vocal critic of Ortega and Murillo, calling the dictatorship “fiercer and more totalitarian than that of the Somozas.” He died in prison two years after his arrest, at age 73.
The presidential couple even went after Ortega’s brother , Gen. Humberto Ortega, a hero of the revolution and the former head of the Nicaraguan Army, accusing him of treason for criticizing the regime’s authoritarian drift and for questioning Murillo’s dynastic succession. On May 19, police surrounded Humberto’s home, placing him under house arrest. Later, after suffering symptoms of a heart attack, he was transferred to a military hospital in Managua.
Some of the leaders of the FSLN government including brothers Daniel and Humberto Ortega (center and second from right, both in glasses), photographed during a military parade in Managua in December 1982. Robert Nickelsberg/Getty Images
“Just because we’re blood brothers, that doesn’t mean that Daniel and his group aren’t extremely uncomfortable with someone like me,” Humberto said in a recent interview with Infobae . “Some have even thought about eliminating me. I’ve never heard it from Daniel himself, but I’ve heard it from people who are close to him.”
In October 2023, the regime dismissed 10 percent of all judicial branch employees, including the president of the Supreme Court, a devoted Sandinista militant personally disliked by Murillo. Even the judge who had dismissed charges brought against Ortega for sexually assaulting his now-exiled stepdaughter, Zoilamérica Ortega Murillo, was caught up in the mass firing .
High-level officials continue to fall as the dictatorship closes ranks around Murillo. In the past six years, she has assumed an increasing share of power in areas once managed by her husband, such as the judiciary and Foreign Affairs Ministry. She has also maneuvered to eliminate intermediaries between her and the leaders of key institutions, such as the Interior Ministry, the attorney general’s office, and the national police. The resulting loss of power among Sandinistas loyal to Ortega has increased internal struggles within the party.
Last month, Nicaraguan police raided the office and home of Finance Minister Ivan Acosta, who was forced to resign—allegedly for acts of corruption, but more likely because he had fallen out of favor with the presidential couple. Employees in the Finance Ministry now fear a wave of dismissals, similar to those that occurred following Murillo’s purge last year of the Supreme Court, which resulted in the mass firing of some 900 government workers—including magistrates, secretaries, janitors, drivers, and even Ortega’s first-born son , Camilo Ortega Herrera, who led the court’s technical services department.
On Aug. 6, Nicaraguan news outlet Confidencial reported that in late July, Murillo dismissed Ortega’s chief police escort, Commissioner-General Marcos Alberto Acuña Avilés, who had served as a loyal member of the president’s security team since the 1990s.
All this reveals “an internal crisis tied up with the growing power of Rosario Murillo,” said Téllez, the former FSLN commander, who served as Nicaragua’s health minister from 1979 to 1990. “Rosario is not satisfied with appointees who are unconditionally supportive of Daniel Ortega. She wants people who are unconditionally supportive of her.”
Nicaraguan citizens exiled in Costa Rica demonstrate in front of the Nicaraguan Embassy to oppose the latest inauguration of Ortega, seen in San Jose on Jan. 10, 2022. Ezequiel Becerra/AFP via Getty Images
The dismissals, surveillance, harassment, and imprisonment—not only of opposition figures, but also of Sandinista partisans, including high-level members of Ortega and Murillo’s inner circle—are dramatically reconfiguring the makeup of power in Nicaragua. The presidential couple has generated discontent, distrust, and fear at every level of the party-state apparatus.
With institutions in chaos, what little support and perceived legitimacy the regime has remains tied to the increasingly frail and marginalized figure of Ortega, who is a lingering symbol of the revolution. The vast majority of the Nicaraguan population disfavors the dictatorship, and it appears increasingly unlikely that Murillo would be able to fill his shoes without creating a power vacuum that could very well spell the regime’s end.
“Murillo is perhaps the only person in Nicaragua with a less credible claim on authority than Ortega, given her deep unpopularity and having never been popularly elected in a legitimate election,” said Paarlberg, the fellow with the Institute for Policy Studies.
“She would have no choice but to double down on repression,” he continued. “Should she fail to hold power, such as by failing to maintain the loyalty of the Sandinista security apparatus, it would create the conditions for a regime transition.”
Max Granger is a freelance writer and translator. His work has appeared in El País , the Guardian , High Country News , and the Intercept , among others. He is a regular translator for El Faro . X: @_maxgranger
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My husband, Haywood, reached retirement age this summer, but instead of actually retiring, he decided to stay on and teach part time. I work from home, alone in a silent house, and I am thrilled to have more time with the person I like best in all the world. The only downside was his stuff. When it’s time to give up his classroom, what does a veteran English teacher do with 37 years’ worth of posters and three-ring binders and author photos and various bringing-literature-to-life aids? What does he do with all the books?
Whatever teaching materials his colleagues couldn’t use, Haywood brought home, along with all the books, to a house already piled to the rafters with the belongings we inherited when our parents died . It was no big deal to hang the pictures in my husband’s home office, to lean the “Moby Dick”-era harpoon in a corner, but the books stymied us. Every bookcase in the house — and there are a lot of bookcases in this house — was already stuffed beyond budging.
One son and his sweetheart carried off three large cartons, mostly duplicates of books we already owned. The rest of the classroom books sat in boxes while we tried to figure out what to do with them.
People have been arguing that print is dead, or about to be dead, for at least half my husband’s teaching career. It is not dead in this house. We write in books. We dogear pages and underline passages and draw little stars in the margins. To read a book after my husband has read it is to have a window into his curious and wide-ranging mind.
Before the objections commence, let me say that I am 100 percent in favor of every kind of reading there is: e-books, audiobooks, Braille books, graphic books, you name it. I’m for it all.
My husband and all three of our children borrow audiobooks and e-books by the hundreds from our public library. They read on various electronic devices, moving seamlessly from laptop to e-reader to phone app. It’s much more convenient than what I do, which is carry books around in my bag, from which they sometimes leave and do not return. How many books have I lost in airports? I once lost two copies of Richard Powers’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, “The Overstory,” one right after another, on the same book tour. Thank heaven for airport bookshops.
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Historiography means "the writing of history.". In a research paper, the writer asks questions about the past, analyzes primary sources, and presents an argument about historical events, people, or societies. In a historiography paper, the author critiques, evaluates, and summarizes how historians have approached, discussed, and debated ...
Lynn Rampolla, whose Pocket Guide to Writing in History has been published in several editions, wrote the goal of a historiographic essay is "to identify, compare, and evaluate the viewpoints of two or more historians writing on the same subject." 1. Notice that a historiographic essay requires evaluation, that is you must . judge
A sample historiographic essay. Let us assume that the subject of your historiographic essay is the Rape of Nanking, an event discussed in some detail in the Book Reviews section. There, we examine the event as it is described and analyzed by Iris Chang in her bestselling book The Rape of Nanking.To this we now add several other sources, all of which are listed in the Works Cited section at ...
A historiographical essay: Is based on a broad, less focused topic or theme, e.g., Reconstruction in the United States) Critically examines secondary sources written by historians; Puts emphasis on the historian, the historian's bias and how the writing of a particular topic has changed over the years
historiographic essay would definitely identify and evaluate any Pennsylvanian and Philadelphian histories that might address the topic entirely or partially. Then you would place those works into the larger context of seminal interpretations at the national level. ...
Historiography deals with the writing of history. In the broadest sense, it is the study of the history of history (as it is described by historians). Historiography has several facets, but for the purposes of a researcher trying to situate their work in the context of other historians' work on a particular topic, the most useful thing is the historiographic essay or review article that ...
like an essay according to the topic's internal logic). Some papers are concerned with history (not just what happened, of course, but why and how it happened), and some are interested in historiography (i.e., how other historians have written history, specifically the peculiarities of different works, scholars, or schools of thought).
Seven Steps to Writing Historiography - Write a Historiography - Guides at University of Guelph. 1. Narrow your topic and select books and articles accordingly. Consider your specific area of study. Think about what interests you and other researchers in your field. Talk to your professor or TA, brainstorm, and read lecture notes and current ...
A historiography (noun) or historiographical paper is an analysis of the interpretations of a specific topic written by past historians. Specifically, a historiography identifies influential thinkers and reveals the shape of the scholarly debate on a particular subject.
History Compass is an online journal that publishes historiographic essays. If there is an essay on your topic, it can be an excellent place to start. Caution: if you do not find what you need with your first search, don't choose Edit Search, because you will then be searching all the publisher's online journals. Return to the starting point ...
History Compass is an online journal that publishes historiographic essays. If there is an essay on your topic, it can be an excellent place to start. Caution: if you do not find what you need with your first search, you will need to scroll to the bottom of the search results page and click on Modify Search to start a new search within History ...
A Historiographic Essay (also known as a Historiographic Review or, outside of the history discipline, a Literature Review) is a systematic and comprehensive analysis of books, scholarly articles, and other sources relevant to a specific topic that provides a base of knowledge.Literature reviews are designed to identify and critique the existing literature on a topic, justifying your research ...
historiography, the writing of history, especially the writing of history based on the critical examination of sources, the selection of particular details from the authentic materials in those sources, and the synthesis of those details into a narrative that stands the test of critical examination. The term historiography also refers to the ...
A historiography is best situated early on in an essay, preferably in the introduction in order to familiarize the reader with the topic and to set out the scope of previous work in broad terms. Your historiography should establish: the major thinkers on the topic, and; their main arguments (or theses). Your historiography may also explain:
A historiography (noun) or historiographical paper is an analysis of the interpretations of a specific topic written by past historians. Specifically, a historiography identifies influential thinkers and reveals the shape of the scholarly debate on a particular subject. You can think of this as a narrative description of the web of scholars ...
An essay is a piece of sustained writing in response to a question, topic or issue. Essays are commonly used for assessing and evaluating student progress in history. History essays test a range of skills including historical understanding, interpretation and analysis, planning, research and writing.
History is a classical intellectual/research discipline with roots stretching back for centuries. As Such, History has its own, complex tradition of literature review called "historiography." Simply defined, Historiography is the History of History - that is, the study of the History produced and written on a given project, including:
Historiography. A historiography is a survey of the historical research conducted on a certain topic, for example the history of midwifery in the United States. Historiography is often called "the history of history," because they assess what research has been conducted on the topic, what was said and how primary sources were analyzed, and how ...
A History essay is a structured argument that provides historical evidence to substantiate its points. To achieve the correct structure for your argument, it is crucial to understand the separate parts that make up a written essay.
A quick search in the library catalog using "Historiography" as a keyword will get you a host of books on a variety of subjects. To find a historiography of a particular subject, you can use the following search structure: specific topic name AND historiography. Ex: Holocaust AND Historiography
Officially, historiography is "the writing of history" but it can generally be thought to refer to other historians' perspectives on a historical event or figure. It is crucial you include historiography in your essays. Especially if you are aiming for a high score (6+) in IB History. The IB states in their mark scheme that in order to ...
History 650: The Holocaust S2003 Prof. Jeremy Popkin Hints for Writing a Historiographical Essay A historiographical essay is an essay which analyzes the way a single historical topic or issue is treated by a number of authors. A historiographical essay is usually problem-centered, unlike a book review, which is centered on a single publication (even though a book review does normally make ...
The essay booklet contains all the Part 4 past paper questions, and a range of suggested questions based on patterns. It can be used to plan essays on the wartime economy, opposition during WW2, the intensification of the Nazis' racial policy and the reasons Germany lost WW2. It was made using 5 AS textbooks and all the past papers.
Lynn Rampolla, whose Pocket Guide to Writing in History has been published in several editions, wrote the goal of a historiographic essay is "to identify, compare, and evaluate the viewpoints of two or more historians writing on the same subject."1 Notice that a historiographic essay requires evaluation,
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Maier's mysterious backstory is a large part of her present-day appeal. Fans are captivated by the photos, but they're also intrigued by the reclusive nanny who developed her talents in secret.
Essay Is Nicaragua's Dictatorship Nearing Its End? How the once-revolutionary Ortega regime may have destined itself to the dustbin of history. August 25, 2024, 6:00 AM. View ...
This essay examines the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 development program from an energy and minerals perspective and focuses on the role of the Red Sea. Outlining the history of Saudi five-year development plans since 1970, the author argues that recognizing the nation's vision of its place within the context of the Red Sea — in historical, strategic, and economic terms — is ...
Whether a story or a poem or an essay or an argument comes in through your ears or your eyes or your fingertips doesn't change the alchemy that happens in reading: the melding of writer and ...
In a JAMA essay by Daniel Shapiro called Perspective Shift, a doctor and a patient look together at the scan of a lesion inside the patient's body. The image is ambiguous, for the lesion appears to have grown in one direction—perhaps scar tissue, perhaps tumour development—but shrunk in the other. Medical technology has provided visual access to the inside of this patient, but medicine's ...