Philosophy Faculty Publications

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

Fall 2010

Publication Source

The Pluralist

Abstract

I was ecstatic when i read Donna Gabaccia's discussion of "keywords." There is a name for this? People really write books about it? I was thrilled to learn that people do systematically what I, in a bumbling sort of way, dabble with. For the past few years, I have kept a "phrase file," entering what Gabaccia calls "central and evocative terms," along with instances of their use that I happen upon while doing other things (Gabaccia, "Nations of Immigrants" 6). Every once in a while, I check in with JSTOR, Reader's Guide Retrospective, and Google Books. I am grateful to Gabaccia for showing us the power of this kind of analysis.

The point of the Coss dialogues is for philosophers to engage with people from other disciplines. In my response, I will take Gabaccia's message about keywords leading to new insights and adapt it to the historical recovery projects many of us pursue. First, I will give some concrete examples of how using keyword searches turned my head around and led me to read classic texts in new ways. Second, I will examine how Grace Abbott and Jane Addams talked about immigrants. They were advocates. When the words the culture gave them carried messages of denigration, restriction, and exclusion, they found strategies with which to subvert those messages.

Inclusive pages

32-40

ISBN/ISSN

1930-7365

Document Version

Postprint

Comments

The document available for download is the author's accepted manuscript, provided in compliance with the publisher's policy on self-archiving. Differences may exist between this document and the version of record, available using the link provided. Permission documentation is on file.

Publisher

Johns Hopkins University Press

Volume

5

Issue

3

Peer Reviewed

yes

Link to published version

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