Conformist historians as caged rats?

Mark
Krueger
finds, Friday, January 23, 2004, a Princeton thesis on the similarities between academics and caged rats

Conformist historians as caged rats?

I FOUND a paper by Princeton’s James R
Beniger, “Using the Principle of Least Interest to
Derive a Dominance Hierarchy from Interaction or Exchange
Data.”

On page 741b of this web-available pdf file:

"Attention, esteem, friendship choices and
Academic Citations are all examples of commodities
exchanged in SIR [Status in Receiving]
relations."

I got a kick out of that because not long before I had read your article [about conformist historians] in
Focus, Nov 1987, “Counterpoint, a Radical Revision,” page 7:

“They quote each other, and have the
satisfaction of being quoted in return. An historian who
is not widely quoted in his fellows’ footnotes does not
exist.”

On page 744 of Mr. Beniger’s article he shows his system deriving data from “Actors” ranging from “Frogs” to “Major
World Powers” (and of course “caged rats“). Seeing such a system include mention of Academic Citations left me laughing out loud.

You probably don’t need help finding topics for comic-relief, but I , of course, found it significant that a
Princeton sociologist acknowledged Academic Citations as a commodity to exchange.

Mark
KruegerFree download of David Irving’s books Bookmark the download page to find the latest new free books