The Art of the Review Show Notes for Episode 20 H-Net History, Part 1

In this episode, Robert speaks with H-Net's first Vice President for Research and Publications, a Habsburg list editor from 1994 to 2009, and World History Bibliographer at Rutgers University Libraries, Jim Niessen. Jim talks about the early days of reviews on individual H-Net listservs, the promise of interactivity and rapid dissemination of reviews, and the centralization of H-Net Reviews through the online archive. 

In the interview, Jim mentions organizing forums around selected book reviews. A number of such forum on Czech nationalism, Wittgenstein's Vienna, Austroslavism, and others can be found starting with the January 1997 Habsburg list logs. Readers can browse through the logs of early H-Net Reviews here and the general listserv logs here.

Today, responses from authors and network subscribers are much easier to post and find on the H-Net Commons. (Subscribers can use the Reply box below any published review.) H-Histsex in particular regularly publishes responses to reviews; recent exchanges centered on Queer BDSM Intimacies: Critical Consent and Pushing Boundaries, Masculinity and Sexuality in Modern Mexico, Gender and Law in the Japanese Imperium, and Same-Sex Desire in Early Modern England, 1550-1735: An Anthology of Literary Texts and Contexts.

Many of the policies regarding ad hominem attacks and conflicts of interest in assigning reviews that Jim Niessen alludes to have been codified in the current Reviewing Standards for H-Net Reviews.

And finally, listeners interested in getting involved as review editors for H-Net Reviews can find more information about how to apply here. Interested reviewers can contact the review editors at their networks of interest by clicking on the "Write to the Editors" link on any network's sidebar menu or writing to the Managing Editor of H-Net Reviews, Yelena Kalinsky.