Peter Feinman: Why is the Press Indifferent to History?How Do We Communicate History?

At the recently concluded annual conference of the American Historical Association, in addition to the passionate discussions about “NO HISTORY JOBS! NO HISTORY JOBS! NO HISTORY JOBS!” featured in my previous post, there were four panels on “Historians, Journalists, and the Challenges of Getting It Right.” Excerpts from a report by Rick Shenkman, publisher and editor-in-chief of the History News Network on these presentations follow [his full report is online].

“The panels were established at the initiation of the National History Center’s Roger Louis and USC’s Marty Kaplan in cooperation with the Annenberg School of Communications [of the University of Pennsylvania]….At today’s morning panel, Kaplan asked if journalists are beholden to a simplified view of history. Jackson Lears [Rutgers and author of Rebirth of a Nation, the Making of Modern America, 1877-1920] immediately answered in the affirmative. He noted that journalists tend to simplify events while historians try to show how complex they are. Simplicity is inadequate because “history is essentially tragic,” considering the unintended consequences that attend most events. He got a laugh when he observed that any time a historian goes to a convention of social scientists, there’s the feeling that their analyses are just too plain simple.

“Rick Perlstein [author of Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America] groused that when Rick Santorum gave his (second place) [now first place!] victory speech in Iowa, no one noticed that the story he told about his grandfather’s escape from Mussolini’s Italy led to years working in a coal mine in a company town where miners were paid in script, turning them into indentured servants. So much for the American dream….This prompted laments about the absence of a grand narrative.”

The topic of a grand narrative for New York State has been raised among others by Peter Eisenstadt, editor-in-chief of the Encyclopedia of New York State (2005) and managing editor of the Encyclopedia of New York City (1995). Part of the challenge in writing a textbook or popular history of New York State is due to the extraordinary range of peoples, places, and events in the one state. While some peoples history date back to the colonial period or earlier, many others are locked into the Ellis Island/FDR or 9/11 time periods. Developing a single story to encompass all our residents requires an extraordinary range of expertise and writing skill to engage an audience that may only care for their own story and no one elses.

This topic relates to several issues of immediate concern that will be the subject of future posts:

1. New York State is now in the process of reviewing its social studies curriculum. What should the role of the NYS History Community, if any, be in this process?

2. How do we bridge the gap between scholarly or academic history and popular history?

3. What communication forums need to be developed so members of the History Community can have ongoing dialogue on these issues? As an example here is a recent example from a listserv that highlights the issue.

H-Net List for Teaching Social Studies in Secondary Schools
From: “Hunt, Tamara L.”
Date: Wed, 18 Jan 2012 16:09:39 -0600
To: H-HIGH-S@H-NET.MSU.EDU
Subject: Developing a Course

I am developing a class on teaching methods for college students planning to teach high school history, and while I have more than 20 years of experience teaching at the college level, I’ve never taught in high school. I’m wondering if the list members could give me some input on things they think should be addressed in such a class, including types of assignments, texts, exercises, or anything else they would like to share with me.

Thanks in advance for your help!

Dr. Tamara L. Hunt
Professor and chair, Department of History
University of Southern Indiana
8600 University Blvd.
Evansville, IN 47712

What active forums exist in New York today for such a discussion among teachers, public historians, historical societies and museums, and history and education departments in colleges on these questions? Considering that the social studies curriculum is now under review and the under-appreciated significance of cultural heritage tourism particularly in areas of economic difficulties in the state, now more than ever is the time for leadership and action in the New York State history community.

At the AHA conference, the following comments also were included in Shenkman’s report:

“Perlstein said that he’s less concerned when movie-makers, for example, make errors than when they wholly falsify history, as Oliver Stone did with his movie about JFK.”

Perlstein’s analysis is shortsighted, counter-productive, and dangerous – he lived through the times of JFK so he remembers it first hand. What about someone who scarcely knows who JFK even is yet alone when he lived? If we don’t take charge of the teaching of history and its dissemination, Hollywood and “I read it on the internet” will.

To be continued.