Molly A. McCarthy
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226033211
- eISBN:
- 9780226033495
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226033495.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, American History: 19th Century
In this era of tweets and blogs, it is easy to assume that the self-obsessive recording of daily minutiae is a recent phenomenon. But Americans have been navel-gazing since nearly the beginning of ...
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In this era of tweets and blogs, it is easy to assume that the self-obsessive recording of daily minutiae is a recent phenomenon. But Americans have been navel-gazing since nearly the beginning of the republic. The daily planner—variously called the daily diary, commercial diary, and portable account book—first emerged in colonial times as a means of telling time, tracking finances, locating the nearest inn, and even planning for the coming winter. They were carried by everyone from George Washington to the soldiers who fought in the Civil War. And by the twentieth century, this document had become ubiquitous in the American home as a way of recording a great deal more than simple accounts. This history of the daily act of self-reckoning explores just how vital these unassuming and easily overlooked stationery staples are to those who use them. From their origins in almanacs and blank books through the nineteenth century and on to the enduring legacy of written introspection, the author has penned a biography of an almost ubiquitous document that has borne witness to American lives in all of their complexity and mundanity.Less
In this era of tweets and blogs, it is easy to assume that the self-obsessive recording of daily minutiae is a recent phenomenon. But Americans have been navel-gazing since nearly the beginning of the republic. The daily planner—variously called the daily diary, commercial diary, and portable account book—first emerged in colonial times as a means of telling time, tracking finances, locating the nearest inn, and even planning for the coming winter. They were carried by everyone from George Washington to the soldiers who fought in the Civil War. And by the twentieth century, this document had become ubiquitous in the American home as a way of recording a great deal more than simple accounts. This history of the daily act of self-reckoning explores just how vital these unassuming and easily overlooked stationery staples are to those who use them. From their origins in almanacs and blank books through the nineteenth century and on to the enduring legacy of written introspection, the author has penned a biography of an almost ubiquitous document that has borne witness to American lives in all of their complexity and mundanity.
Patrick Vinton Kirch
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780824839550
- eISBN:
- 9780824871475
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824839550.003.0006
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Pacific Studies
This chapter first considers the traditional Hawaiian methods of telling time and recounting the past. It then turns to the question of when people first settled in Kahikinui. The question can be ...
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This chapter first considers the traditional Hawaiian methods of telling time and recounting the past. It then turns to the question of when people first settled in Kahikinui. The question can be answered in different ways. From the perspective provided by an extensive database of radiocarbon dates from sites throughout the moku, it can be said that the first permanent settlements began to appear over the landscape around A.D. 1400, although there is limited evidence for infrequent earlier visitations. In the broader context of Hawaiian cultural history, this also means that people began to permanently occupy Kahikinui in the Late Expansion Period (A.D. 1400–1650). The question about Kahikinui’s cultural chronology can also be answered from an indigenous Hawaiian perspective, in which time was reckoned by the generations of ruling chiefs. In this case, people would have begun establishing permanent settlements in the district by the time of the aliʻi nui (ruling chief) Kaʻulahea.Less
This chapter first considers the traditional Hawaiian methods of telling time and recounting the past. It then turns to the question of when people first settled in Kahikinui. The question can be answered in different ways. From the perspective provided by an extensive database of radiocarbon dates from sites throughout the moku, it can be said that the first permanent settlements began to appear over the landscape around A.D. 1400, although there is limited evidence for infrequent earlier visitations. In the broader context of Hawaiian cultural history, this also means that people began to permanently occupy Kahikinui in the Late Expansion Period (A.D. 1400–1650). The question about Kahikinui’s cultural chronology can also be answered from an indigenous Hawaiian perspective, in which time was reckoned by the generations of ruling chiefs. In this case, people would have begun establishing permanent settlements in the district by the time of the aliʻi nui (ruling chief) Kaʻulahea.
