We all have limitations, and as a big fan of your book Searching for Jim,
I'd say long live your negotiation of those limitations!
I spent three years researching Missouri slavery from a distance(partly
because my fellowship covered daycare but not travel expenses), only to have
your book published 6 months after I graduated. I read many of the same
primary sources you use in your book, and you have a gift for taking
abstruse prose and rendering it not only intelligible but, better still,
entertaining and informative.
Personally, I revel in your professional "limitations."
Sharon McCoy