The USC History Seminar Series 


is Proud to Present:

≥Cartographies of Time≤

Daniel Rosenberg

Associate Professor of History

Robert D. Clark Honors College

University of Oregon

Monday, 13 October 2008, 4-6 PM

History Department, SOS 250

University of Southern California

Biographical Sketch:

Daniel Rosenberg is Associate Professor of History in the Robert D. Clark Honors College of the University of Oregon. His work focuses on problems of time and representation in the eighteenth century and on the legacies of the Enlightenment in modern literature, philosophy, and art. His publications include Histories of the Future (2005) and the forthcoming Cartographies of Time, with Anthony Grafton.

The USC History Seminar is forum for substantive discussions of current work by leading historians on emerging questions of historical methods, topics, themes, and theories. During the inaugural two-year cycle of this series (2008-2010), the theme is ≥Itπs About Time: Critical Perspectives on Historyπs Home Dimension.≤

Participants are expected to read the pre-circulated papers, articles, or chapters.  Presenters will make brief opening remarks but will not lecture.  All participants are invited to join the critical discussion.  Light refreshments provided. Free parking is available for those arriving from off-campus.

Professor Rosenberg is making two texts available:

"The first is a selection from the introduction to Cartographies of Time, a book that I am just completing with Anthony Grafton, that is due out next year from Princeton Architectural Press. The second is my article "Joseph Priestley and the Graphic Invention of Modern Time" from Studies in Eighteenth-Century Culture 36:1 (2007) which gives the argument of the pivotal section of the book on the 1750s and 60s.≤ (Further words of introduction can be found below).

These readings can be downloaded from the following link:

http://www-rcf.usc.edu/~philipje/USC_History_Seminar/USCHistSem2008-9.htm

To reserve parking if you are coming from off campus, and to assure a place in the seminar, please send an email to Lori Rogers, lrogers@usc.edu.

Professor Rosenberg provides further introductory remarks:

Cartographies of Time is a history of graphic representations of time in Europe and the United States from 1450 to the present.  The book argues that this history may be divided into two main phases, the period from 1450 to 1750, during which scholars relied heavily on the tabular system of representation developed by the fourth-century Christian scholar Eusebius, and the period from 1750 to the present during which the simple, measured line displaced the tabular matrix as the standard mechanism for representing historical chronology.

The story that we tell in the book has many twists and turns--it takes detours through sixteenth-century astronomy and follows Canadian missionaries to Oregon, turns up little known works by famous figures including a historical chronology by the mapmaker Gerardus Mercator and a chronological board game patented by Mark Twain--and, as I will shown in a few slides, the table and the line are only two of many possible ways of graphing history.  In the book, the circle, the tree, and many other figures get due consideration.  Nonetheless, the book argues that in Western history and chronology, the table and the line hold a peculiarly central place.  The book is a study of these two favored forms in relation in relation to a changing ecology of images and ideas.  

Thank you so much for taking an interest in this work.  I very much look forward to meeting you all."

The readings can be downloaded from the USC History Department website:

For inquiries, contact:

Philip J. Ethington (Co-Chair, with Cynthia Herrup, Program Committee)

phiipje@usc.edu

Professor of History and Political Science

North American Editor, Urban History

www-rcf.usc.edu/~philipje