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Laurentian Shield is a web site devoted to historical research.  It is obviously not peer-reviewed, but I intend for it to be as serious as any peer-reviewed scholarship.

Originally the site tag line was “examining northwoods culture” because I intended the focus to be on the history and sociology of the upper Midwest, areas covered by the real laurentian shield.  However my interests have broadened to go with the reach of the subjects I am looking into, and so I have changed the tag line to “examining human culture from a northwoods perspective.”

For technical reasons and only for technical reasons, in-line sources will not be used.  I have created a Sources page which is to be used for all sources.  If an article says something that is not readily evident from the sources, then readers are encouraged to ask in the comments and authors (for right now just me, but hopefully I can grow the blog) should cite particular pages.  Again, this is for technical reasons, not because I don’t feel clear and direct citations are important.

I do a lot of writing on Wikipedia.  As of 14 October 2013 I have started 24 articles, which I think is a lot considering Wikipedia has been around a while and so many subjects have been covered a long time ago.  The criteria for an encyclopedic article are different than this blog, particularly in the ability to fill in the gaps with reasonable speculation, and to do primary research.  A good example is John Baptiste DuBay.  The Wikipedia article is neutral almost to the point of being dry.  However, he had a very colorful life, and the story of his murder trial is full of drama.  It is impossible to capture that in the Wikipedia article, and this blog (when I get around to that particular post) can capture the overall drama better, not by fabricating data but by telling the larger story.

If you want to get an account and add articles or essays to this blog, please comment below.

Jon