User:WellsSouth

I enjoy wikipedia and think it is a wonderful opportunity for all scholars and non-scholars alike. I am a donor to Wikipedia, just as much as I am to public radio and public television and to Ancestry.com, because I believe in Wikipedia and think it worthy of support from every user.

I have developed a large library of books over my life and I particularly enjoy finding an article in wikipedia that lacks citation and then add my citations to it taken from my own library. My additions to the written material are usually aimed at smoothing the transition between events in history. I particularly enjoy portraying the economic motor forces that underly historic events. Indeed, I tend to disfavor the "great man" theory of history in favor of economic determinism at every step. Individuals do not bend the course of history down a certain path by their pure will. Rather individuals usually act out of their own individual economic interests along the course of history. Thus, a mass of individuals in the form of society as a whole can bend history down a historical path that follows the general economic interest of that society.

Ideally then I like to read books that describe the economic booms and recessions of history. However, there is a scarcity of these books. Consequently, I find myself reading either political biographies of historical figures--usually the kings, queens or prime ministers of the past or I find myself reading histories of the wars of the past. Both of these tend to be unfulfilling. Historical biographies tend to immerse the reader in the great man theory of history again. Consequently, all my life I have read political biographies guardedly. I look for the economic forces, or really, political factions in the particular society representing a particular economic interest in that society, that is forcing the main character of the particular biography to act in the manner he/she is acting.

Reading histories of the wars of the past as a constant diet is gruesome. It reflects society at its worst. Many times I have sworn to not read any more war histories--"to study war no more." However, I have been forced back to these books repeatedly because history is universally indexed by the dates of the beginning and ending of wars. Ideally, I would like to index history according to the beginning and ending dates of economic good times and economic down turns completely apart form the wars. In my attempts to do so, I have found a close relations between the dates of economic booms and depressions and the dates of wars. Consequently, I have gone back to reading these books guardedly, looking for the economic causes of wars and the economic consequences coming out of the wars--looking closer at the ante-bellum and post-bellum periods around wars for differences in economic conditions.

When I write, my ideal is to describe the peacetime activities of ordinary individuals in their attempts to provide food, clothing and shelter for themselves and their families. I feel this is what people do consciously or unconsciously for most of their lives. I want to portray these efforts as part of an entire group or faction of society that is doing the same thing. Then I want to describe how these efforts are or were successful during economic boom times or hindered during times of economic downturn.