While I don’t generally consider myself someone who appreciates the mathematical arts to the same degree I appreciate the linguistic ones, I nevertheless tend to take a significant amount of comfort in quantifying progress on nebulous and/or extended projects. This is a quick quantification of some of the progress I’ve made on the book I’m writing, Hitler’s Rhetoric.

Manuscript

Number of chapters drafted: 7 of 16

Number of sources in the bibliography (incomplete): 374

Total words in full draft form: 62,533

Total words, not including endnotes: 41,864

Total words in endnotes: 20,669

% of the manuscript fully drafted: ~40

Research

Year I started research on the book: 2017

Year I started writing in earnest: 2020

Number of countries I’ve done related research in: 3

Number of related books that I own currently on my shelf: 146

Number of related, printed-out articles on my shelf: 112

Number of related library books currently on my shelf: 39

Number of related books I need to check out from the library today: 6

Number of physical libraries/archives/museums I’ve visited: at least a dozen

Number of digital libraries/archives/museums I’ve visited: impossible to calculate

Total number of sources I’ve read: dude, I have no idea, but I’d guess a couple thousand by now

Related Activities

Total related scholarly articles/book chapters I’ve published: 10

Total related public articles/essays I’ve published: 8

Total professional seminars facilitated: 1

Total related grants applied for: 14

Total grants won: 4 (+1 under review)

Total talks/conference presentations given or proposed: 19

Support System

Total number of friends and colleagues who have read drafts and given feedback: at least 16

Total number of graduate research assistants: 1

Very incomplete number of people who’ve given me leads/advice/help: 126

Total number of people I’ve made talk to me about Hitler and Nazis: incalculable

• rhetoric
• writing