The first round of Junto March Madness has now concluded, with most of the favorites progressing through to the next round. You can find full results below the jump… Continue reading
Tag Archives: Junto March Madness
Junto March Madness 2014: Round 1, Brackets 3 and 4
Welcome to day two of voting! Your votes will decide who gets another shot at Junto glory. Continue reading
Junto March Madness 2014: Round 1, Brackets 1 and 2
The brackets have been compiled, the notes have been consulted. More importantly, you have had all weekend to consider the match-ups. Now all we wait for is your votes to decide who progresses to the next round. Continue reading
Junto March Madness 2014: The Unveiling of the Bracket
Today is the day you’ve all been waiting for with eager anticipation—the official unveiling of the Junto’s March Madness bracket! Thank you to all who nominated books over the last couple of days—this whole project wouldn’t have been possible without you.
As with last year, we had an overwhelming response to our call for nominations, with over 150 books nominated, and over half of those receiving multiple nominations or seconds. Constructing the bracket from such a list was a difficult—each of us had to see books we wanted in the tournament fall by the wayside.
Junto March Madness 2014: Call For Nominations
Last week, we announced our plans for “Junto March Madness 2014” – a bracket tournament pitting our readers’ favorite early American history books published since 2000 against each other. Today, we begin the Call for Nominations. Check out the rules below and then add your nominations and seconds in the Comments section. Then, by the power of The Junto‘s bracketologists, we’ll compile the tournament brackets, and open it up for your votes starting next Monday. Continue reading
Junto March Madness: Take Two!
The calendar has worked its way round to March, and here at The Junto that can only mean one thing: Junto March Madness is back! The principle is simple: we ask our readers to nominate books about early American history, then we pair them off against each other, until there’s only one book left standing. Last year’s tournament can be found here: Edmund Morgan’s American Slavery, American Freedom ultimately proved victorious.
This year, we’re going to be doing the same thing, only with a twist: entrants to the tournament will be limited to books published since 2000. Last time around, we noticed a tendency to reward older, more established books. We wanted to bring the same liveliness of discussion to more recent works, and to highlight recent work that deserves the prominence of old favorites. We’ll be asking for nominations next week, but we wanted to give you some advance notice so you could start thinking of the books you wanted to receive full consideration. Continue reading
Junto March Madness: Some Reflections
Colonial historians celebrating Morgan’s victory.
The final outcome of the Junto March Madness wasn’t really a surprise. Edmund Morgan’s American Slavery: American Freedom was the most heavily nominated book when we compiled the bracket, and no challenger really came close to defeating it as it stormed through the tournament like a juggernaut. Morgan’s easy victory invites reflection on why the book remains such a well-loved classic. Today, I am going to offer a few preliminary thoughts as to what we can can learn from the tournament, with all usual caveats about the unscientific nature of the process still in force. Continue reading
Your Junto March Madness Winner: Edmund Morgan!
Probably expected to most readers given the book’s performance thus far, we at The Junto are pleased to announce Edmund Morgan’s American Slavery, American Freedom to be the winner of the 2013 Early American History Tournament. Cronon put up a fight, but in the end Morgan pulled away with 65% of the vote. You could call this an end-to-end victory, since Morgan’s book received the most nominations, was never really challenged, and always seemed destined for the title. And this may be fitting: the book is magisterial in research, exquisitely written, and still relevant to any project on colonial history. (Not to mention it works great in the classroom!) It is a testament to its power that American Slavery is still en vogue three and a half decades after its release. Sure, there are problems, but the book still challenges and provokes any close reader, and that is one of scholarship’s true purposes. Continue reading
Junto March Madness: CHAMPIONSHIP GAME!!!
This is for all the marbles, folks. I’d like to thank everyone who has voted (nearly 250 unique IP addresses!), shared this on twitter or facebook, and participated in the comments. We at the Junto have had a lot of fun, and we hope to make some version of this tournament a yearly tradition. (We’ll of course mix up the topics, periods, etc.) As always, this is acknowledge to be an extremely silly and subjective game, with a primary purpose of promoting discussion.
We have had enough chatter over the last two weeks so, after a brief reminder of how we got here, let’s get to the voting. We can only hope this matchup will be as riveting as the Lousiville/Michigan game. Continue reading
Junto March Madness: Final Four Results
Once again, many thanks to all who voted–each matchup received around 180 votes. The winners are below. Voting for the championship will take place Wednesday.
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Edumund Morgan, American Slavery, American Freedom 65%
Daniel Richter, Facing East from Indian Country: A Native History of Early America 35%
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William Cronon, Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists, and the Ecology of New England 54%
Walter Johnson, Soul by Soul: Life Inside the Slave Market 46%
The Junto 