Blog Review: Cliopatria

Cliopatria, a site enjoying its fifth year in existence, is a blog created for both serious and amateur historians, as well as laypersons interested in reading and discussing current events. The site follows the common blog format. Each blog entry on Cliopatria has a date header, a title, the time stamp/permalink, the name of the author, a comments option, and the trackback option. Cliopatria is actually a group blog, meaning there are numerous contributors to the site.
The blog is well organized. In the left column, there are numerous departments such as: news, HNN articles, Hot Topics, Roundup, Blogs, Books, Features, HNN Videos, HNN Podcasts, Student Shortcuts, Teacher’s Lounge, and Jobs. Each department offers a wealth of resources.
Since the site covers a myriad of topics and time periods, there are numerous categories/departments from which to begin your search. Moreover, these categories are designed to “take the guess work” out of finding the appropriate level of historical rigor within the site. For example, students would immediately be drawn to the Student Shortcut Department, which offers links on Doing Research on the Web, 9-11, United States History, World History, Science and Technology, Applying to College, etc. On the other hand, teachers would be drawn to the Teacher’s Lounge, wherein there is a Syllabus Finder, Classroom Lesson Plans for the K-12 and K-16 Teachers, and a Technology in the Classroom Link.
The site is informative for historians with either a liberal or conservative orientation. I detected no bias to either extreme, regarding volume. Both sides were represented, equally. Consistent with the culture of blogging, many bloggers submitted frequently, apparently omitting the typical peer review formalities. In order to maintain some semblance of integrity within the site, Cliopatria has a Contributing Editors link that allows users to read and verify the bloggers’ credentials. Bloggers posting regularly included a blogging professor from Princeton University, a Stanford educated blogger, and bloggers serving on various historical/research advisory boards.
Fortunately, I did not detect a particular agenda being pushed by the site. The contributing editors cover a variety of topics and offer equally compelling intellectual opinions/insights. In Chronicle Careers, Ivan Tribble states “blogging was not a good idea for graduate students and junior faculty members . . .”. However, there are serious intellectuals foregoing this well-intentioned cautionary advice and are publishing maniacally. There are posts added throughout the day from as early as 1:54 AM to 2:00 PM.
The posts have varied considerably over the course of the week. Cliopatria is updated daily, multiple times a day. However, the site is easy to follow over the short and long term. The site has an Archive Section which catalogues itself (e.g. articles, previous blogs, etc.) monthly, organized by both month and year. This archive section offers sixty links, covering the twelve months in a five year period. Cliopatria, the blog, exists as a part of George Mason University’s History News Network. This may be responsible for the high volume of traffic which visits the site regularly.
The blog offers up to date information. There are numerous links with current pictures, clear videos, and audio/podcast options. There are many incentives to return to the site daily such as: Top Young Historian, History Doyens, On This Day in History, and Quote/Unquote of the Day. This blog is highly recommended!!!