These materialistic and ideological attacks have caused a dramatic decline in undergraduate humanities majors. In the 2018-19 academic year, only 23,923 college graduates received degrees in history and related fields, which, the AHA notes, were ““down by more than a third from 2012 and the smallest number awarded since the late 1980s.”
Private groups, which traditionally provided substantial financial support to budding humanities scholars, have taken the cue and have increasingly stopped supporting the humanities and soft social sciences. Social Science Research Council recently ended Its International Thesis Research Fellowship program, which over the past 25 years has funded more than 1,600 scholars exploring “non-U.S. cultures” and “U.S. Indigenous communities,” claims that the program “fulfilled many of the goals it had set for itself.” Similarly, the Ford Foundation has decided to end the National Academy long-term scholarship program for historically disadvantaged scholars, in order, the chairman of the fund declared“Invest more deeply in movement building.”
That is the end of history. And the consequences will be significant.
Entire fields of our common history will never be known because no one will receive a living wage to explore and study them. Scholars with precarious jobs cannot be expected to make bold and creative claims about history when they could easily be fired for doing so. Instead, history will be studied more and more by the wealthy, that is, those who can work without pay. It is easy to see how this could lead to American historians adopting a bias in favor of the status quo. In today’s world, if you don’t have access to elite networks, financial resources, or both, it’s pointless to pursue a career in history. In the future, history won’t just be written by the winners; it will also be written by well-off people.
If Americans are not seriously invested in history and the other humanities, we encourage the ignorance of history on which the response is based. Many Republican politicians support “divisive concept” laws that try to regulate what college professors teach. Are they aiming for an easy target in the culture war? Maybe. But it is also true that a humanistic education that encourages thinking often challenges xenophobia and racism. Progress depends on studying and debating the past openly and with understanding. This is especially true in a time like ours, in which Americans use history to fight over which country’s vision should govern politics. Without historians who meaningfully and accurately reflect on the past, ignorance and hatred will surely prevail.
Without professional historians, history education would increasingly be in the hands of social media influencers, partisan hacks, and others uninterested in gaining understanding. complex, empirical knowledge of the past. Take, for example, Bill O’Reilly’s 12-book-and-counting”Murder series — best-selling nonfiction series of all time, according to his publishers O’Reilly — whose frame itself sensationalizes the past by focusing on “the death and destruction of some of the most influential men and powerful nations in human history.” The same can be said of Rush Limbaugh’s youth series “Rush Revere”, in which Mr. Limbaugh time-travels and has three corners of the hat that teach “about some of the most special Americans.” Or consider Twitter, where historical debates frequently erupt — and also frequently turn to name calling. If professional historians are a thing of the past, no one will be able to defuse these types of arguments with calm analysis and bring seriousness to purpose, depth, and thoughtful consideration to the discussions about who Americans are and who we want to be. ethnic.
Americans must do everything in their power to prevent the end of history. If we fail to do so, exaggerations, half-truths and blatant lies will dominate our historical imagination and make it impossible for us to understand and learn from the past.
Daniel Bessner is an associate professor of international studies at the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington and co-host of the foreign affairs podcast “American Prestige.”
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