What Space Is This Time? Historiography in the Space of History

In asking the question embedded in the title, this article explores the tension between inertia and change in cultural historical studies. Inertia in this context does not mean inactive or inert (i.e., without active properties), but the structural constraints that are revealed when codes, forms, practices, roles, etc., contest. What kinds and forms of socio-cultural knowledge, values, or structures are maintained, developed, or abandoned across geographies and throughout a system’s history? Rather than thinking in terms of core and margin and related binaries of difference and “othering,” inertia and change as historiographical strategies focus on the dynamics that affect social systems and structures, preserving some systems to conserve energy while introducing or forsaking others. In the process of exploring these spaces in historiographical time, this article draws historical examples from attempts among scholars and performers in the United States in the latter nineteenth century to stage “American” histories that stored, rejected, and created past and contemporaneous historical spaces at such sites as Lewis Henry Morgan’s view of Ancient Society (1877), the Columbian Exposition of 1893, and Buffalo Bill’s Wild West.

Floor Action

Chapter 3 focuses on the legislative early game. Given the individualistic and “Wild West” nature of floor activity in the Senate, we should expect to see senators who want to make an impact propose amendments. Through an in-depth examination of the debate around Congressional Quarterly’s designated key votes from 2003 to 2013, as well as an examination of the 2009 floor debate around the Affordable Care Act and 2003’s Medicare Modernization Act, this chapter illustrates that partisans and leaders were prolific in the amendment activity, while moderates neglected the activity. Still, the argument could be made that moderates win the early game behind the scenes, so the chapter then turns to floor activity on speeches—the logic here is that if moderates are happy with the legislation, they should take to the floor to defend it. Again, we see that moderates eschew this behavior as well.

SPANNING THE AMERICAN WEST Bootstrapping Opportunities for Design in an Engineering Led Context

<p>North American bridge design is dominated by a culture of risk aversion and economic constraint. While objectives of safety and efficiency should be the baseline of any project, they are sometimes set as the sole benchmarks for a successful bridge design within the North American context. When the end game is to simply meet the baseline of safety and efficiency, goals related to user experience and aesthetic impacts are often considered superfluous. This paper showcases lessons learned from designing within this context.</p><p>Stories from bridge designs showcase the ups and downs of bootstrapping higher design goals into footbridge projects in the Wild West.</p>