Professor Simon Middleton (University of East Anglia) and I (Billy Smith, Montana State University) invite scholars to submit proposals for essays to be published in a volume tentatively titled "Class and Class Struggles in North America and the Atlantic World, 1500-1800." To encourage discussion of these issues and to make the volume more coherent, we are organizing a conference focusing on this topic in September 2003 in Bozeman, Montana. We ask potential contributors to the volume to present their essays at the conference. (We are also hoping to edit a special edition of Labor History on this topic).
Scholars interested in the volume and/or conference should submit by July 15, 2002 a 600-word proposal and a brief vita (preferably as attached email files) to Simon Middleton (s.middleton@uea.ac.uk) and Billy Smith (bgs@montana.edu).
The detailed Call for Papers and more information about the conference and volume are available at www.montana.edu/~wwwhi/Malone/Papers.html.
The literature about this topic currently is at a critical juncture. The book and conference are intended to help reconstruct the lens of class, taking into account the excellent scholarship of recent years- from the new social history to its new historicist critics-in order to sharpen our scholarly vision of the popular struggle in the early modern Atlantic World. We warmly invite you to engage in discussion with other scholars, a dozen of whom have already expressed interest in the project, including Marcus Rediker, Simon Newman, Marjoleine Kars, Susan Klepp, Gary Nash, Jesse Lemisch, Woody Holton, Gail Danvers, Michael Zuckerman, and Ron Schultz.
A note on the conference: Since the mountains of Montana can be especially beautiful in the early Fall, and because we are close to Yellowstone National Park, one important sub-theme will be: "The Way a Conference Should Be." Besides visiting some beautiful places, we may even require a two-joke minimum be included in each paper and comment. After all, analyzing class in today's world often demands a sense of humor.
Happy Trails and Be Good to your Horse.
Your Humble Servant,
Billy G. Smith
The Michael P. Malone Professor of History
(And Powerpoint Wallah & Writer of the Purple Sage)
Department of History & Philosophy
Montana State University
Bozeman, MT 59717
406-994-5207