The Review: Are historians out of their lane?

Plus: summer reading, from the Chronicle staff. ADVERTISEMENT [The Review Logo]( You can also [read this newsletter on the web](. Or, if you no longer want to receive this newsletter, [unsubscribe](. The debate among Democratic Party officials about whether President Biden should drop out of the race has invited much commentary from the cadre of public-facing liberal historians who made a name for themselves during the Trump administration. At Slate, William Hogeland, himself a historian, disapproves. In a polemical essay titled “[Is the Age of the Resistance Historian Coming to an End?]( Hogeland takes aim at Heather Cox Richardson’s claim, in a CNN interview with Christiane Amanpour, that “in the whole picture of American history, if you change the presidential nominee at this point in the game, the candidate loses.” This assertion, Hogeland writes — “so clear, so forceful, so authoritative” — is “totally invented.” In fact, “changing nominees at this point has literally never happened before — not even once.” You can’t infer a pattern from nonexistent data points. Hogeland’s concern is less with Richardson and Biden per se than with the broader movement in which she figures especially prominently, that of “the historian-as-self-appointed-indispensable-public-adviser-on-current-politics” (“Resistance Historians” for short, due to their popularity with the online anti-Trump political movement sometimes hashtagged as "#TheResistance”). At its worst, Hogeland suggests, academic historians’ slide into punditry tempts them to lean on their academic authority to buttress what are in fact merely political preferences. Besides Richardson, he names Princeton’s [Kevin Kruse]( and Sean Wilentz and Yale’s [Timothy Snyder](. Back in 2019, in our pages, Sam Fallon made a [similar argument](. For his part, Kruse is treating this as an affair of honor. “If you call me a goddamn ‘resistance historian’ to my face,” he [posted]( on Bluesky, a social-media app meant to replace Twitter, “I will fucking cut you.” SUBSCRIBE TO THE CHRONICLE Enjoying the newsletter? [Subscribe today]( for unlimited access to essential news, analysis, and advice. What Chronicle Staffers Are Reading This Summer Sara Lipka, assistant managing editor: “The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race, by Walter Isaacson, on the scientific and human drama of CRISPR research.” Emma Pettit, senior reporter: “This summer, I am beginning to read my way through The Atlantic’s list of Great American novels. Completing the list will take much longer than one season. But so far, I’ve finished Toni Morrison’s Sula and Mary Gaitskill’s Veronica. I’ve just started Fran Ross’s Oreo. Up next is Lauren Groff’s Fates and Furies. (The order is determined by the D.C. public library’s hold lists.)” Anais Strickland, copy editor: “I’m bouncing between two chunksters to distract me from the heat: Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, by Susanna Clarke, an alt-history fantasy novel set during the Napoleonic Wars, and Leviathan Wakes, by James S.A. Corey, a sci-fi novel that inspired the TV show The Expanse.” Claire Wallace, engagement editor: “My favorite summer read has been Chain-Gang All-Stars, by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, where, in a dystopian U.S. future, prisoners are given the option for freedom … as long as they survive three years in a series of death matches against other prisoners, televised to the American public as ‘hard-action sports.’” Stephanie Lee, senior writer: “I’m reading Cahokia Jazz, a hard-boiled noir set in an alternate America circa the 1920s. Imaginative and propulsive.” Raphael Ukpelegbu, specialist, education programs: “I’m allowing anyone to give me recs, so it’s been fun reading classics from Camus and Dostoevsky, but I’ve really enjoyed other books like The Song of Achilles, Flowers for Algernon, and Paper Towns.” Andrew Mytelka, assistant managing editor: “The Iliad and the Odyssey (Lattimore translations), and T.S.R. Boase’s biography of Giorgio Vasari (based on the 1971 Mellon Lectures at the National Gallery).” ADVERTISEMENT UPCOMING PROGRAM [The Chronicle's Library and Institutional Success Program | July 2024] The Chronicle is partnering with Ithaka S+R to host a brand new [professional development program for librarians]( in July. This innovative two-week program will help library leaders understand the many roles they might take on, boost the success of the campus library, and better align with their institution’s goals. Learn more about our seminars and workshops, and [register today]( The Latest THE REVIEW | ESSAY [Curricular Trauma, Vaporous Politics, and Field Death]( By Len Gutkin [STORY IMAGE]( When books become venomous, the humanities suffer. ADVERTISEMENT [Curricular Trauma, Vaporous Politics, and Field Death]( THE REVIEW | ESSAY [I Was Trapped in For-Profit College Hell]( By Mark Rivett [STORY IMAGE]( Predatory schools tricked students like me into assuming huge debt for worthless credits. Recommended - “As with the novel, Stephen complains, newspapers enjoy great political influence, without demonstrating the sort of responsibility and impartiality that might legitimize it.” In The New York Review of Books, Tim Parks [writes]( about James Fitzjames Stephen’s literary and media criticism. - “He grew to despise the Céret paintings. In later decades, he would hunt for them, buy them back from dealers, and rip them to shreds.” Also in The New York Review of Books, Celeste Marcus [on the art and life]( of Chaïm Soutine. - “The fascination of Harmonium, for me, is listening to the new poet testing his enormous acoustic range, adjusting inherited magnificence to a harsh new century.” In Liberties, Rosanna Warren [wishes]( Wallace Stevens’s first book a happy hundredth birthday. - “Slippery figures like Reubeni usually flit in and out of the historical record.” In the London Review of Books, Alexander Bevilacqua [reviews]( Alan Verskin’s new book about David Reubeni, the false 16th-century Jewish messiah. Write to me at len.gutkin@chronicle.com. Yours, Len Gutkin FROM THE CHRONICLE STORE [The Future of Graduate Education - The Chronicle Store]( [The Future of Graduate Education]( Graduate education has enjoyed a jump in enrollment over the past five years, but it faces a host of challenges. [Order this report]( for insights on the opportunities and pitfalls that graduate-program administrators must navigate. JOB OPPORTUNITIES [Search jobs on The Chronicle job board]( [Find Your Next Role Today]( Whether you are actively or passively searching for your next career opportunity, The Chronicle is here to support you throughout your job search. Get started now by [exploring 30,000+ openings]( or [signing up for job alerts](. NEWSLETTER FEEDBACK [Please let us know what you thought of today's newsletter in this three-question survey](. This newsletter was sent to {EMAIL}. [Read this newsletter on the web](. [Manage]( your newsletter preferences, [stop receiving]( this email, or [view]( our privacy policy. © 2024 [The Chronicle of Higher Education]( 1255 23rd Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20037