Sociology as context for genealogy

Two 20th-century guys I wish had had longer lives are George Orwell and C. Wright Mills. Mills's 1951 book White Collar is a minute examination of what became of the 19th-century society we often encounter in genealogy. The subjects of my first kinship determination project were three generations of Burdicks: Rodman (1799-1878, carpenter and farmer), son Joseph (1826-1897, farmer, insurance agent, laundry proprietor, clerk, and more), and grandson Frank (1855-1920, printer, express company agent, carpenter for a railroad company). They were all middle class in their times, but during their century-and-a quarter, the meaning of "middle class" changed.

Mills has interesting things to say about this, and while he's no Orwell he does so in language more readable than that of many sociologists:

The most important single fact about the society of small entrepreneurs was that a substantial proportion of the people owned the property with which they worked. . . . perhaps four-fifths of the free people who worked owned property. {7}

What happened to the world of the small entrepreneur is best seen by looking at what happened to its heroes: the independent farmers and the small businessmen. These men, the leading actors of the middle-class economy of the nineteenth century, are no longer at the center of the American scene; they are merely two layers between other more powerful or more populous strata. . . . Democratic property, which the owner himself works, has given way to class property, which others are hired to work and manage . . . .  Work is now a set of skills sold to another, rather than something mixed with his own property. {13, 14} . . . Over the last hundred years, the United States has been transformed from a nation of small capitalists into a nation of hired employees. {34}

Harold Henderson, "Sociology as context for genealogy," Midwestern Microhistory: A Genealogy Blog, posted 14 July 2014 (http://midwesternmicrohistory.blogspot.com : viewed [date]). [Please feel free to link to the specific post if you prefer.]

Weekend Writing: Stop the Zombie Nouns!

If the reader can't figure out what action is taking place, then the writer has fallen into a pit. Always. So following Helen Sword's advice in this New York Times article can greatly improve our writing.

Do you have trouble spotting zombie nouns? Just look for those ending in "tion." Or look for weak linking verbs ("be," "is," "was," "are," "were" when used without other verbs), and rewrite the sentence using real active verbs. The act of doing so forces us to understand the reality, just as having to cite our sources forces us to understand them. (Linking verbs do have their place -- in this sentence and the next, for instance -- but it is not all over every page of our writing.)

Sword refers back to George Orwell, one of the very best 20th-century writers, showing that, like other kinds of zombies, this problem has proven very difficult to kill.


Hat tip to 3 Quarks Daily.

ADDED 6 PM CST SUNDAY: If you're interested, I'll be leading an APG online discussion on writing Tuesday at 9 PM EDT, 8 PM CDT. BYOQ (Bring Your Own Questions). First come, first served, limit 25: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/join/128858424, access code 128-858-424.



Helen Sword, "Zombie Nouns," Opinionator, New York Times (http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/07/23/zombie-nouns : accessed 25 July 2012).

Harold Henderson, "Weekend Writing: Stop the Zombie Nouns!," Midwestern Microhistory: A Genealogy Blog, posted 29 July 2012 (http://midwesternmicrohistory.blogspot.com : accessed [access date]). [Please feel free to link to the specific post if you prefer.]

Is it history or is it all clean and shiny?

Tony Judt is writing here about England, but I'm pretty sure we can all recognize parts of our own local histories and genealogies in the US:

In England's West Midland potteries district, tourists and local schoolchildren were encouraged to learn how Josiah Wedgwood, the eighteenth-century ceramics manufacturer, fashioned his famous wares. But they would search in vain for evidence of how the pottery workers lived or why the region was called the Black Country ([In his book The Road to Wigan Pier, George] Orwell described how even the snow turned black from the belching smoke of a hundred chimneys.) . . .

Industry, poverty, and class conflict have been officially forgotten and paved over. Deep social contrasts are denied or homogenized. And even the most recent and contested past is available only in nostalgic plastic reproduction.

Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945 (New York: Penguin Press, 2005), pp. 772, 773