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A new organization for historians, The Historical Society, has just been established. The aim of this organization is to provide a framework within which serious debate on major historical issues will be possible. It will not be sectarian or exclusionary, and will not privilege any particular approach to history or any particular political stance. A statement of principles follows, and following that you will find a membership form. If you re interested in joining, just print up the form, fill it out, and send it in (with a check) to the address given there. For more information, including lists of some of the people who have already signed on and newspaper stories about this new effort, please visit our website: <http://home.nycap.rr.com/history/> You can also email us at <fgavin@cfia.harvard.edu> or write us at: The Historical Society, P.O. Box 382602, Cambridge MA 02238-2602. The Society s first annual meeting will be held in the Boston area in late May 1999. We also plan regional conferences. Meetings are now being scheduled to help set up those regional organizations; the next such meeting, for the northeast region, will be held in Albany, NY on May 19-20. For details, contact Elisabeth Lasch-Quinn, <edlasch@maxwell.syr.edu> Marc B Trachtenberg <cram@sas.upenn.edu> Executive Director Richard Jensen <rjensen@uic.edu>, Executive Committee ======================== MANIFESTO: The Historical Society We are pleased to announce the formation of a new and genuinely "diverse" organization. The Historical Society is open to all who want to do serious history, whatever part of the political and ideological spectrum they come from. It will be a place in which significant historical subjects are discussed and debated sharply and frankly in an atmosphere of civility, mutual respect and common courtesy. All we require is that participants lay down plausible premises; reason according to the canons of logic; appeal to evidence; and prepare to exchange criticism with those who hold different points of view. We have no interest in endless controversies and "cultural wars" with those who are satisfied with the status quo. We intend to concentrate on the constructive work of reshaping our profession by building the kind of historical association whose functions historians will want to attend simply because they are intellectually profitable and offer warm collegiality. We seek neither a restoration of the Good Old Days, which never existed, nor the perpetuation of the irrationalities of recent years. We are drawing upon the strongest features of past experience to shape an institution that can steer our profession through a rapidly changing age. Hence, we are determined to make the Society's meetings especially attractive and hospitable to the graduate students and young professors who carry our hopes for the future. And we intend to reintegrate the profession--to provide economic, political, intellectual, social, and other historians, and historically-minded scholars from other disciplines, with a place to exchange ideas, contribute to each other's work, and learn from each other. To facilitate maximum participation, we plan to alternate biannual national meetings with regional meetings that people can more readily get to and shape according to their own tastes and problems. We shall thus make a special effort to include long-slighted historians at smaller colleges and university branches. We want to leave a decent legacy for the coming generations to build on. Please join us in this effort. _________________________________ JOINING THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY I would like to enroll as a charter member of The Historical Society. Signature: Name: Title and Affiliation: Mailing Address: Phone: Email address: Areas of Specialization: To give potential members some sense for what the Society is about, we would like to include lists of charter members on our website and in our informational literature. Would you be willing to allow your name to be used for this purpose? ____Yes ____No The charter membership fee has been set at $20 ($10 for students). Please make your check payable to The Historical Society, and send it, together with the completed form, to: The Historical Society P.O. Box 382602 Cambridge, MA 02238-2602 ================================================
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