This document summarizes a lecture about hypertext and history. It discusses how texts have been modeled digitally and as individual versus networked units. Histories are described as stories that can be told from different perspectives like the Great Man theory or Historical Materialism. The document analyzes Ayers' book "The Promise of the New South" and database project "The Valley of the Shadow" in terms of open versus fixed narratives. It also evaluates the project "The Differences Slavery Made" which was an experimental digital format created in response to criticisms of "The Valley of the Shadow."

1. Hypertext and History
Prof. Alvarado
MDST 3703
1 October 2013

2. Business
• Quizzes due before class on Thursday

3. Review: Text
• We began by looking at texts as isolated units
– stories, folktales, myths, dramas, etc.
• We showed how texts have been modeled
digitally, e.g. by OHCO, XML, TEI, HTML
• We also saw that the individual text is not
simple
– It has levels: Structure, Content, and Style
– It has overlapping structures

4. Review: Hypertext
• Last week, we saw that when viewed from the
perspective of the library, this model breaks
down
• Texts appear more as intersections in a
network of lexia rather than as stand-alone
objects
• The idea of hypertext decomposes the unitary
text as a temporary formation within a
universe of possibilities (the Library)

5. This week, we move from modeling
the text to the text as model
Text as a model of history
How are history and text related?

6. Historians tells stories
Stories, according to Aristotle,
describe action
What kind of action?

7. [The Action of Heroes]

8. So, histories tells stories about
people
They are also written from different
perspectives and motivations
What are some kinds of
perspectives?

9. [Great man theory]
The Great Man theory of history

10. Historical Materialism

11. Christian Eschatology

12. It’s Complicated
http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2010/apr/29/mcchrystal-afghanistan-powerpoint-
slide#zoomed-picture

13. Are these kinds of history told in
the same way?

14. Is there a connection between
medium and message?
Let’s take art as an example

15. [Napoleon]

16. Picasso’s Guernica (1937)
[Guernica]

17. Ayer’s book, The Promise of the New South, tries
to create this kind of experience in textual form
How does the book do it?

18. Open vs. Fixed Narrative
• Fixed narrative
– Traditional, linear story showing cause-and-effect
or logical sequence
– Makes an argument
• Open narrative
– Many narratives
– Questions of cause-and-effect left open, argument
left to the reader to surmise

19. [Quote]

20. To move away from this

21. What from this course does this
opposition remind you of?

22. The problem of overlap
Competing narratives are like
overlapping structures
OHCO : Fixed Narrative
::
Structure : Content

23. What media form does Ayers
develop after Promise?

24. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the
shadow of death,
I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy
rod and thy staff they comfort me.
(from Psalm 23)

25. The Valley of the Shadow
moves beyond Promise
toward open narrative model
The database as radical hypertext

26. Back story: IATH
• Institute for Advanced Technology in the
Humanities
http://www.iath.virginia.edu
• Established in 1992
• Funded by IBM
• VOS one of two founding projects
• A demonstration project for IBM; pitched as "as a
research library in a box, enabling students at
places without a large archive to do the same
kind of research as a professional historian."

27. The Library/Archive Metaphor

28. What does the site contain?

29. What’s in the Archive
• Content
– Thousands of primary sources
– Newpapers, letters, diaries, maps, images, gov docs
• Coverage
– Space: Augusta Co, VA and Franklin Co, PA
– Time: 1859 to 1870
• “Value-added” Interfaces
– Search and browse
– Timelines
– Animations
• http://valley.lib.virginia.edu/VoS/MAPDEMO/Theater/TheTheater.
html
– Resources for using the site

30. How hypertextual is the site?
How is “associative indexing”
handled?
(Associative indexing described by Bush as
function of Memex)

31. Site Structure
• Organized hierarchically
• Terminal nodes (lexia) not connected laterally
• No cross-site searching
• Minimal narrative

32. Does the site fulfill the goals of
open narrative?

33. No, Ayers put too much faith in
the database to produce the
desired effects

35. The Differences Slavery Made
An experimental form of
historical publication created in
response to criticisms of VOTS

36. “an applied experiment in digital scholarship”

37. What is the specific problem that
TDSM tries to solve?
What was the experiment about?

38. To give full access to the
scholarly argument
and its evidence
And to relate the two

39. How were these
problems addressed by
Differences?

40. Technology
• XML is used to organize content
– The is is made from one big XML file, 24,000 lines long
– XML used to markup sources and argument
• XSL is used to transform content
– We are not learning XSL, but it is similar to CSS but
more powerful
• GIS is used for map data
– Geographic Information Systems
– Allows maps to display statistical data

41. Devices used by TDSM
• Narrative overlay (the Argument)
• References provided links to lexia
(Historiography and Evidence)
• Conventions for making citations
• Content divided into broad groups, reflecting
the craft of history

42. Major Categories of Site Content
• Narrative
– Summary of argument
– Points of analysis
• Historiography
– Secondary sources
– Annotated bibliographic references
• Evidence
– Primary sources
– Documents
– Tables (data)
– Maps
(This exposes a model of how history is done)

43. Site Structure
• Hierarchy with links
– Menu A: Introduction, Summary, Points, Methods
– Menu B: Evidence, Historiography, Tools
– Each menu item has sub-menus
• How does Differences connect to Valley?

44. Darnton’s Pyramid
Concise
account
Expanded
versions of
aspects
Documentation with
interpretive essays
Theoretical and historiographical
material
Pedagogic material

45. Core TDSM “Prismatic” Structure
Historiography
Points of
Analysis
Evidence
Summary of
Argument
VOS

46. How hypertextual is the site?
How is “associative indexing”
handled?

47. Categories used to organize content
• Geography
• Politics
– Election of 1860
– Political activtivists
• Economics
– Commerce
– Crops
– Labor
– Property
• Social structure
• Race
• Culture
– Religion
– Education (“school”)
– Urbanization (“Town Development”)
• Information and communications

48. Categories used to organize content
• Geography
• Politics
– Election of 1860
– Political activtivists
• Economics
– Commerce
– Crops
– Labor
– Property
• Social structure
• Race
• Culture
– Religion
– Education (“school”)
– Urbanization (“Town Development”)
• Information and communications
Missed
opportunity?

49. Criticisms
• Nothing inherently hypertextual about the site
• Thesis is not that complicated
– Modernity and slavery not opposites
• Why not put exhibits inline?
• Why not show points of comparison in
context?
– Need for transclusion
• Why explain relationship in historiography?
Why not create links or use tags?

50. Criticism
• Worst of both worlds
– Neither random access nor rich narrative
– Exploits neither the potentials of a real library or a
digital library
• Document-centric
– Subject matter remains buried in the documents
• It’s strength is in the integrity of the materials
• But criticized for being difficult to use
• Is it scholarship?

51. Themes
• The site exposes the process of history as a
form of storytelling
• We move from narrative to database to hyper-
narrative
• How would you improve the site?