Maybe the ‘end of history’ following the Cold War really meant the end of the history profession and the teaching and learning of history. And, if so, who is to blame? Well, Florida obviously. But beyond that? Probably hubris. Or late stage capitalism. And Big Tech. For sure, Big Tech.
Our History
What do you do when it’s raining at the beach? Throw on your swim suit, grab a beach towel, a pair of flip flops, and have a lovely refreshing swim with HAG – Spring Break edition. Think of us as your history lifeguards, keeping you safe from the currents of bad history and the culture war undertow. History may be facing an existential crisis, but not to fear. Just tune in, turn on, and hang loose with your HAG hosts as we break it all down and build it back better. Just in the nick of time too – with a new History Against the Grain, it’s like a day at the beach.
Click on the link to hear Episode 62 Experts in a Dying Field
Sources Referenced and Items of Interest
An Uncertain Trend: The AHA’s 2022 Survey of History Undergraduate Enrollments
Nathan Heller, “The End of the English Major” (February, 2023 – The New Yorker)
Jacob Bruggeman, “Down and Out at the AHA: History is Facing a Jobs Crisis, Why Doesn’t the Field Talk More About It?” (March, 2023 – The Chronicle of Higher Education)
Hayden White, The Content of the Form: Narrative Discourse and Historical Representation (1987)
“Students are vanishing from the field, too — as best as the AHA can tell, undergraduate enrollments are on a ‘slow and steady decline’.”
Jacob Bruggeman
History Against the Grain 