The introduction to one of the textbooks I'm assigning for next term's "Early Modern Europe" history survey contains an interesting sentence: Overall, at least in the editors' judgment, the academy has emerged bruised but resilient: more conscious of its limitations, more tolerant of alternative pathways, more cautious about general conclusions, but otherwise in remarkably rude … Continue reading Discipline and Profession
history
Enlightenment Means Never Having to Say You’re Sorry
Coming fashionably late to the culture-war party, The Economist published a piece this week on the evils of "Critical Race Theory" (CRT), a body of scholarship associated with ideas such as "intersectionality," "white privilege," and (though so far as I am aware it did not originate the phrase, much less create the phenomenon) "systemic racism." Though I … Continue reading Enlightenment Means Never Having to Say You’re Sorry
Can ‘Progress Studies’ Contribute to Knowledge? History Suggests Caution
By Shannon Dea, University of Waterloo and Ted McCormick, Concordia University (republished from ; original here) According to tech entrepreneur Patrick Collison and economist Tyler Cowen, academia needs a new discipline called “progress studies.” But their proposal overlooks two crucial facts: human progress has been an object of study for centuries, and innovators ignorant of that scholarship … Continue reading Can ‘Progress Studies’ Contribute to Knowledge? History Suggests Caution
History is Bad for You. Science Told Me So
When -- as Alex Rosenberg did in Salon the other day -- you publish a piece with the title "Why Most Narrative History is Wrong”, and subtitle it “Even the best histories fail to identify the real causal forces that drive events. Science explains why”, you create certain expectations in a reader. To wit: You … Continue reading History is Bad for You. Science Told Me So
Reverence and Engagement
My office is filled with books. It's not an especially capacious room, but there are five large bookcases in it, university issue, as well as two smaller ones I bought myself. Each shelf is fully stocked from end to end, and rows of books line the top of each shelf near the ceiling, as well … Continue reading Reverence and Engagement
Lessons of History: Stop It
History shows that there is a God. History teaches that free and open commerce is beneficial to all. History shows that children are no asset for a Prime Minister. History teaches us to hope. History teaches us that confronting antibiotic resistance requires stronger global collective action. History teaches that the Roman Catholic religion has … Continue reading Lessons of History: Stop It
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