The Backward Glance is a blog written by Lincoln Mullen, a Brandeis University PhD student in American History and historian of religion. Mullen?s study and expertise are basically on early American history and the religious history of New England. His blog is composed mostly of tips and articles on education, digital humanities, religion, history, and the life of a graduate student. The targeted audience are graduate students and aspiring graduate students, history students and practitioners, and those who are interested in American history, religious history, and digital humanities.
The site’s strong points
Lincoln Mullen?s blog is basically what you would expect of a blog: an array of the latest articles on the main blog page composed of titles, excerpts or lead in paragraphs, and links to each entry?s page. The articles are mostly about Mullen?s field of expertise, though there are a lot of articles about being a graduate student. There are entries and interesting bits and pieces of trivia about America?s history and the religious history of England, religion in America, graduate school book reviews, and frequently asked questions about graduate school, among many others. There was an article providing a list of materials that one must read before and after applying for graduate school. It includes short descriptions for each book, along with short previews on what the books are all about and what a person could get out of reading it.
The site’s weak points
One good point about the blog is that it makes use of pictures to spice up the articles and make the blog more visually interesting. The articles are also written in a simple and conversational manner, at least the advice articles, which makes them easy to understand. The website also serves like a portal to other websites that the author is interested in, since it provides a number of links. Making use of more pictures, videos, and having a more interesting layout of photos and texts in articles would perk up the blog tenfold.
