Academic historians fret about not reaching the public. It's not enough to say (even if true), "I'm doing such important & interesting work." It's about writing.

First, accept that work that doesn't signal that it's for academics only can still be cutting-edge scholarship.
1/5
There are conventions for journal articles & monographs that serve a professional purpose, & signal that they are for fellow scholars. That's fine! But historians should embrace serious work that doesn't follow these conventions. It's not dumbing down to depart from them.
2/5
Second, academic historians who want a wide audience need to read fiction & compelling nonfiction journalism, & ask why it's appealing. It's not about color, an anecdote, an important fact. It's about giving the reader a reason to go on to the next page—the next paragraph.
3/5
My go-to short handbook on writing narrative is David Lodge's collection of columns, "The Art of Fiction." He defines the propulsion mechanism as raising questions in the mind of the reader & delaying the answers. That goes directly against academic conventions. But it's key.
4/5
There's a lot more to it than that, but that's the basic point. It works for argument as well as narrative. Sometimes you know the ending—how do we get there? Sometimes you don't know what will happen or be revealed. Make the reader want to find out.

Thus endeth the lesson.
5/5

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More from @TJStiles_Author

3 Jan
Just Trump's opening remarks are lunacy. His first reason for asserting fraud is rally size. He claims 50,000 voters were told they couldn't vote because they already did & 100,000s of ballots were forged. No court has seen *any* evidence for any of this.
washingtonpost.com/politics/trump…
At about 7:29, he says, "We won every state and every single statehouse.... We won Congress..."

I had jokingly suggested that Trump should just claim that he won every state. Why limit himself, if he's going to make stuff up? Lo and behold, he did.
He claims 5,000 dead Georgians voted. "They" (whoever "they" are, they sure work hard) "went through obituaries." I wonder if they have a mole inside the top-secret obit-reading operation. My God, Trump just monologues, on and on and on. Now he's making up numbers about Detroit.
Read 21 tweets
2 Jan
Historian @KevinLevin mentioned a new biography of Lee coming this fall. I have no knowledge or opinion of it. But some historians asked, "Do we really need a new biography of Lee?" The answer is easy: always—if done right. The reasons are complicated. 1/7
penguinrandomhouse.com/books/253141/l…
Of course, I wrote about a man who is even more frequently chronicled and even more unpopular than Lee—though he contributed materially to Lee's defeat. I'd argue it was worth doing. I see four reasons for new biographies of old subjects.
2/7
indiebound.org/book/978030747…
First, new questions. I explored Custer in Reconstruction, his role in politics, his place in intellectual, environmental, & economic history. Unexpected contexts change how we see familiar figures, leading to surprising historical insight—though they don't rehabilitate.
3/7
Read 8 tweets
4 Aug 20
Jesse James & Donald Trump: A thread.

Trump's reelection slogans come straight from the long history of white supremacy:
1) "Law & Order"
2) "Radical left governors & mayors"
3) "Protect the suburbs [from black people]"

Jesse James's life illuminates their meaning.
1/10
I'm not the great scholar of white supremacy, but I see a repeated pattern, including in Jesse James's life.

1) "Law & order" represents the *aggression* of white supremacy. Before the Civil War, the growing challenge to the slaveholders' dominance bred aggressive demands.
2/10
The proximate cause of the Civil War was the demand for *more* by slaveholders—especially new territory. Proslavery militants in Missouri (home of Jesse James, born 1847) organized "Border Ruffian" paramilitary units to force slavery on the neighboring Kansas Territory.
3/10
Read 11 tweets
24 Mar 20
As a public service, here’s a summary of President Trump’s message to the American people so far:
1) The virus is nothing! You won’t even notice you’re sick. Go to work. Shake a lot of hands.
2) IT’S A FREAKING CHINESE INVASION!
3) A hoax. Fake news & Democrats want to ruin me...
4) I’m so focused on this. I’m super aggressive and a natural born scientist and took all the steps no one thought I should take before I was even president. In sum, Obama—swine flu—total disaster.
5) It will go away in a miracle. It’s more of a February virus. Hates April...
6) You reporters with your questions, always questioning me! I hate you all! You die now!
7) There’s this hair-loss drug I’m super-sure will cure the China virus. Right, doctor?
8) Don’t look at me. The governors are in charge. They should fight each other for the ventilators...
Read 4 tweets

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