Why study it? Why blog about it? Why bother? Well, I read somewhere that you should blog about your passion and cultural history is mine. It's hard to explain. I know, particularly in these difficult political times when so much is at stake, that cultural history can seem frivolous and too much like nostalgia. But cultural history is really about values and values inform our choices at every moment of every day and hence our politics--even when we don't realize it.
I've tried a couple of other blogs that didn't "take" partly because doing stuff and writing about it (i.e. a garden) takes a lot of time. But I write about cultural history for a living so some of that can spill over in to my blog. I'm hoping that reading a blog about cultural history will help my readers think about what they value and to make choices more consciously as a result. That would make blogging worth doing.
