Editing Historian (section)

====Historical editing====
A new advanced specialty opened in the late 20th century: historical editing. [[Edmund Morgan (historian)|Edmund Morgan]] reports on its emergence in the United States:<ref>Edmund S. Morgan, "John Adams and the Puritan Tradition." ''New England Quarterly'' 34#4 (1961): 518–529 at p. 519.</ref><blockquote>It required, to begin with, large sums of money. But money has proved easier to recruit than talent. Historians who undertake these large editorial projects must leave the main channel of academic life. They do not teach; they do not write their own books; they do not enjoy long vacations for rumination, reflection, and research on whatever topic interests them at the moment. Instead they must live in unremitting daily pursuit of an individual whose company, whatever his genius, may ultimately begin to pall. Anyone who has edited historical manuscripts knows that it requires as much physical and intellectual labor to prepare a text for publication as it does to write a book of one's own. Indeed, the new editorial projects are far too large for one man. The editor-in-chief, having decided to forego a regular academic career, must entice  other scholars to help him; and with the present [high] demand for college teachers, this is no easy task. </blockquote>