Donald R. Kelley: THE OUTSIDE AND THE INSIDE

Most of us know Donald R. Kelley in his role as executive editor of the Journal of the History of Ideas, still the premier journal of intellectual history despite what he calls "the descent [although not the demise] of ideas". During his 15-year tenure the ]HI has appeared on schedule, turns a profit and enjoys a circulation of nearly 3,000 print subscribers, in addition to the electronic edition on Project Muse. It regularly receives about 150 manuscript submissions per year of which it publishes about 35. The Journal of the History of Ideas remains successful in spite of itself--certainly in spite of its name. Few in the early 21st century would characterize their work using Lovejoy's modernist rubric ''history of ideas". It is the International Society for Intellectual History, not the International Society for the History of Ideas, and the difference in name indicates a change in emphasis, method, and interest since the JHfs establishment 60 years ago. Early in his tenure as editor of the ]HI he published an article in that Journal on ''What is Happening to the History of Ideas?" Reprinted in the first issue of Intellectual News it remains one of the most-cited articles by members of this Society.! Less known, perhaps, is his work of the past few years, which expand on that article and update it, detailing the past and looking toward the future of intellectual history. He remains astonishingly productive m this venture. How many septuagenarians undertake a new scholarly program? Since 2000, Kelley has published a dozen articles, given a dozen keynote addresses, and published two books, with the fmal instalment of his historiography trilogy due out in 2005. Much of