Welcome! This is my new blog. I am a graduate student at Brandeis University who is (hopefully) in the throes of completing his dissertation (River without a Land: Alsace and Rhineland in the Making of Modern Regionalism, 1836-1936). I live in the Pioneer Valley of Massachusetts with my wife, my son, and my rabbit. I am also a contributor to the group blog, Cliopatria.
As with my old blog, The Rhine River, I focus on European history, particularly of France and Germany. Whereas the old blog used my dissertation as a place to jump off to other subjects, I intend to use European history more directly to write about numerous events. Furthermore, I hope to develop the site’s resources. Sometimes my attention to Europe (and European news sources) has led to confusion over my identity. Too many times, to my embarrassment, I have been mistaken for a Frenchman or German by visitors. I am, in fact, American, part Jewish, part Hispanic, born and raised in Los Angeles.
Europe Endless 
February 28, 2008 at 11:51 am
Hi ndrobins,
having read your great blog, we figured this news might be interesting for you:
(If not so, we beg your pardon, for “spamming” you with unwanted mails!)
We – a group of young scientists at the University of Wuerzburg – have started a new blog for researchers and grad students:
scholarz.blog – spotlights on academic life (http://blog-en.scholarz.net)
We write about everything that moves us, especially our experiences with our dissertations and research, just as well as the academic, campus and extra-curricular life as a researcher, writer and academic teacher. In particular, we are talking about our interdisciplinary research project “Scientific work in the Web 2.0″ and the online knowledge management software “scholarz.net” that we are currently developing.
The “scholarz.blog” is intended to be a communication platform for academics. Written from grad students for grad students, post-docs, and young scientists.
Take a look and give us some feedback. Are you interested in a blogroll. I would be more than happy to hear from you!
Many thanks and best regards from Germany
Carsten Steigleder
April 15, 2008 at 3:27 am
[…] death (pp. 707 and 709). Unfortunately, they are included in the original French. Many thanks to Nathanael Robinson, who generously and meticulously translated these from the 19c formal French. I’ve appended […]
October 25, 2008 at 4:56 am
A very interesting blog. Yes, I thought you were German. Now I’m reading your post “HOLY and ROMAN and, yes, an EMPIRE” which provides a lot of insight. I might comment on that, although I am leaving for San Francisco in two days so my time is limited.
Best regards
Man of Roma
March 21, 2009 at 11:29 pm
I’m looking forward to reading your blog. My great-grandparents were from the Alsace region. They were German, although my great-grandmother was an intimidating French woman. My daughter is in the Air Force, stationed in Stuttgart at the present time and has thoroughly enjoyed her time in Europe. I spent a month in Kaiserslautern with the Army in ’91 during a ReForGer exercise. It was a wonderful experience. I had a chance to contact German relatives and to polish up my spoken German. My sister, who has lived in Germany for many years, winces when I continue to use the American pronunciation of German words that are used in the US (Volkswagen, for example). I told her that, if I was relocating, I’d concentrate and catch myself each time I used the word; but, since it came up so seldom, I didn’t give it much thought knowing I’d be back in Texas soon. I already get some criticism for sounding a bit too uptown having worked in radio and television, where one doesn’t have a regional accent (although I haven’t lived out of the state this time for so long, I may have picked up some Texan-isms). I definitely say “Howdy” and “y’all” on occasion. The plural of “y’all,” by the way, is “all y’all.”
Best Regards from the Lone Star State.