The utility of history for rational self-government: David Walsh: "That Twitter is the major forum for this says a lot about the pitiful state of our institutional capacity...
....However, that so many people are interested in what we have to say despite the decades of attacks on our profession and higher education generally speaks volumes....
You don't become a good historian by reading Hayden White, or by going to conferences; you do it on Twitter, you do it on the streets. In all seriousness, and in response to the very legitimate “why keep engaging with right-wing trolls?” question, like it or not this is how most people interact with historians. I don’t get paid to be on Twitter. Frankly it’s a distraction from writing. Maybe if I’m very lucky it won’t be an obstacle to getting an academic job. Why do I keep coming back? Because clearly there’s a need for historians on here, to at least offer grounded analyses of the past in the face of so much sophistry.... I tell this to my GF whenever I’m feeling down about the state of education in America: clearly, what we’re doing matters; otherwise, why have they invested so much time and energy in trying to tear it down?...
