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   Sean Bala (seanbala@mas.to)'s status on Friday, 01-Mar-2024 02:44:34 JST Sean Bala

   in reply to

   • Zeb Larson

   @Zeb_Larson I once read a book about Joseph McCarthy and one of the more interesting facts was that he purposefully did the vast majority of his business via telephone so he would leave no paper trail. So, we actually have VERY little documentation from him.

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     Zeb Larson (zeb_larson@zirk.us)'s status on Friday, 01-Mar-2024 02:44:35 JST Zeb Larson

     in reply to

     Imagine how much worse it’s going to get with the advent of e-mail. We’re about to enter an information black hole where correspondence can casually disappear and there’s no archival recourse that you can take. If you really want to think about holding Congress accountable, part of that is not letting members write their own histories.

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     Zeb Larson (zeb_larson@zirk.us)'s status on Friday, 01-Mar-2024 02:44:36 JST Zeb Larson

     in reply to

     It happens in more vexatious ways, too. I really wanted to look at Richard Lugar’s papers in grad school, but they weren’t scheduled to be opened until ten years after the death of his wife. Moynihan’s widow has to give permission to look at his papers; Mark Hatfield’s wife only recently opened up his papers.

     And then lots of people don’t do anything with them at all.

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     Zeb Larson (zeb_larson@zirk.us)'s status on Friday, 01-Mar-2024 02:44:37 JST Zeb Larson

     in reply to

     As an example, I was looking at the papers of Wisconsin senator William Proxmire a few years ago. Proxmire was in the Senate for decades, but all told, he had just ~180 boxes. That might sound like a lot, but it’s not. Imagine the sheer volume of correspondence, briefings, memoranda, and paraphernalia a senator’s office generates in a year. Daniel Moynihan had a similar tenure and had something like 3,000.

     And all of Proxmire’s history, or most of it? Gone.

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     Zeb Larson (zeb_larson@zirk.us)'s status on Friday, 01-Mar-2024 02:44:38 JST Zeb Larson

     One of my weird historiographical hills that I will die on is how poorly congressional records are saved. There is no requirement that they save their papers, and there are no requirements about how they make them accessible. It is honestly kind of a crisis; it allows our elected representatives near-complete control over their history and the history of legislative governance in this country.