Re: claims that academe is now "left-leaning" based on very short-term studies. There may be some truth there, but getting to it requires careful attention to context and cause. Worth recalling that things have been different, and asking, Why? E.g. the presidential address 1/
to the American Historical Association in 1963 concerned the arrival of lower-class non-WASPs in the field: "Many of the younger practitioners of our craft are products of lower middle-class or foreign origins, and their emotions not infrequently get in the way of historical 2/
reconstructions. They find themselves in a very real sense outsiders on our past and feel shut out. This is certainly not their fault, but it is true. They have no experience to assist them, and the chasm between them and the Remote Past widens every hour. The changes 3/
in the background of the present generation will make it impossible for them to communicate to and reconstruct the past for future generations." There was no recorded demurrer: but the profession did change, becoming in many ways more professional. How much current hand- 4/
wringing reflects similar anxiety that new people and new voices are speaking up, often enough in some sort of protest against micro- or macro- aggression? Will recognizing their concerns really doom the academy? 5/
