Researching the Essays for Unfixed Timelines 2
When I published the first volume of Unfixed Timelines, I spent a day visiting libraries in the Seattle area to find good sources to cite in the essays related to each of those stories. I had plans to do the same for Unfixed Timelines 2, but the Saturday I’d set aside for that fell in late March 2020.
All of the libraries in Seattle closed before that Saturday rolled around, thanks to the early days of the pandemic. So instead, I had to do my research primarily online and in references I had access to digitally. I did the best I could with what I had, but I also included reference to sources I might have used if I’d been able to access them at the local libraries.
I’ve considered whether or not I should go back and re-write the essays in this volume of the Unfixed Timelines series, but I haven’t done so. I think there’s value to keeping the essays as are as a reflection of the history of the time when the book was published.
Even though five years ago doesn’t really feel like “history,” there will be future generations of historians who study the pandemic in terms of peoples’ responses to the uncertainty and social distancing, which will be a fascinating topic. So the essays in Unfixed Timelines 2 could one day be a tiny footnote in some historian’s research, and I love that idea!
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