Dissertation on Google Docs
It seems silly to keep my dissertation, “Wilhelm Groener, Officering, and the Schlieffen Plan” (2006), locked up on databases only accessible via research libraries, so I’ve made it available as a PDF document via Google Docs. I still reserve all rights on the thing, but I might as well make it more accessible to people without a university affiliation.
If you want to know more, before you view a 1 MB document, here are just the abstract and table of contents.
And here are two short blog posts on the topic:
Finally, in historiographic terms, a very short article I did is relevant: “Particularistic Traditions in a National Profession: Reflections on the Wilhelmine Army Officer Corps” (2000).
Where does the journey go from here? Since the Schlieffen Plan debate is still going on, I should update my findings on that issue and write an article accessible to broader scholarly audiences. Maybe a couple other scholarly articles are possible too; however, I am not contemplating a monograph at the moment, as my editing job and adjunct teaching are keeping me pretty busy.
Update, Feb. 12, 2012: For more posts on Wilhelm Groener, the Schlieffen Plan, and German war planning, please visit my new blog, Stoneman’s Corner.
Stoneman’s Corner
- Book Review: GDR and Consumption January 13, 2013
- Teaching Notes: Synthesis and Process September 29, 2012
- Hist 499-005: Gender and Class in Modern Europe August 18, 2012
- Reflections after Class July 3, 2012
- Requiring Students to Use Chicago Style (or Turabian or Whatever) June 14, 2012
- Military History Conference May 13, 2012
- Syllabus for Hist 606: Themes in European History II May 3, 2012
- Command Culture by Jörg Muth April 28, 2012
- Who Should Groener’s Schlieffen Plan Matter To? March 18, 2012
- Hist 499-003: Gender and Class in Modern Europe (Required Books) March 7, 2012
Hi,
unfortunately I get a “document not available” following your link on this page as well as the one on the abstracts and table of contents-page…
regards, Rolf
That’s odd, because it works for me on two different computers and networks here in the U.S. I wonder if it is a network problem on your end. I say that, because the diss. is on Google Docs, but the abstract and TOC are housed at Mac.com, so it can’t just be a Google issue.
Hi, well I did try again with Firefox and got the same response…
Do you mind me contacting you directly (at …@gmu.edu) for a copy?
Thanks a lot,
Rolf
Yes, it sounds like a network issue on your end. I’ve emailed it to you directly. Hopefully the 1 MB attachment doesn’t clog your account.
One archivist, informed by the Open Access movement, says I’m wrong to make my dissertation available in this particular way. I don’t quite follow him, but here: http://archiv.twoday.net/stories/6472130/
From there you can follow a comment back to another post on this blog with my follow-up. Part of it contains actual issues, and part of it is just snark. I’d rather not keep the snark going, but if anyone wants to share information about how scholars without a tenure-track position are sharing their dissertations online—if they are sharing them—I’m all ears.
I have found plenty of information about the Open Access movement, but it appears to be primarily about peer reviewed articles. Admittedly, I haven’t had time to dig into this yet. It slipped my radar screen, as it was not something my mentors are concerned with. Indeed, even blogging is a pretty contentious thing for many established scholars.