On Tue, Jan 06, 2009 at 10:14:52PM -0500, WJhonson@aol.com wrote:
Can you point to any source in a BLP which comes from a "peer-reviewed publication" ? I mean any of them at all?
That's exactly my point. There is no lack of academic analysis of politicians, of artists, etc. But we do not seem to use any of it.
For example, I can find numerous articles on George W. Bush on JStor. And once he is out of office there will be no lack of biogaphies written to analyze his presidency. We could argue about whether these journals and biographies are "peer-reviewed" but they are certaily of a higher caliber of scholarship than the average MSNBC web page.
If, as you have argued, our role is to wait for other scholars to decide what's important, and then report that, why don't we do so in BLPs? Why not wait a few years for analysis to emerge before we report on things?
- Carl