Digital history articles in the new issue of the Journal of American History

Dominique Daniel Discussion

The June, 2014 issue of the Journal of American History includes a  digital history research feature in a new "metagraph" series.

The article  is "Space, Nation, and the Triumph of Region: A View of the World from Houston" by Cameron Blevins (p. 122-147, doi: 10.1093/jahist/jau184)

Abstract: The past decade has witnessed an explosion of digital innovation in the humanities. In the first "Metagraph" digital history research article published by the Journal of American History, Cameron Blevins shows how new technology can add to the historian's tool kit and alter our understanding of the historical production of space and region. He uses "distant reading" to uncover surprising and otherwise-hidden spatial patterns in how a Texas newspaper crafted a view of the world for its readers in the late nineteenth century. In an age of national integration the newspaper constructed an imagined geography dominated by regional connections. An online component visualizes these patterns and discusses the article's digital foundation at http://spatialhistory.stanford.edu/viewoftheworld/