
The Future of History? It's Already Here - benbreen
http://historybuff.com/the-future-of-history-its-already-here/
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6stringmerc
Articles like these typically puzzle me. For all the love of the discipline,
there's a constant struggle to contradict the, well, rather bleak job
prospects upon achieving a PhD. The subjects interviewed were interesting case
studies, but from my perspective, also 'got lucky' in finding a niche. Getting
a degree and trying to get lucky in the liberal arts/humanities isn't what I'd
advise for young people looking to have a stable, well-compensated, non-
transient career.

 _The failure of American universities to support young academics does not,
however, mean that history itself is dead._

That may be true, but I get the feeling it's "alive" much in the same way that
sculpture is still an available major and profession.

~~~
benbreen
I can't disagree with you about the academic job market (full disclosure: I'm
actually one of the people interviewed in the article). But I do think it's
useful to draw a distinction between the tough job prospects for professional
academic historians and the discipline as a whole. The rise of the internet is
fantastic news for the latter and ambiguous at best for the former. I worry
sometimes that all of the "humanities in crisis" articles (often written by
historians) will become a self-fulfilling prophecy and drive down interest in
history itself, whereas they're typically not so much reflections on the field
as they are inside-baseball reports about yearly job statistics.

History, taken broadly as a domain of knowledge that includes both academics
and non-professionals, is actually in a golden age right now, in my opinion.
Our stock in trade is primary sources, and this is the best time in history to
be able to access them. I'm excited to see what historians in, say, 2040, will
be able to do with the incredible wealth of new historical sources being
created every second in the present.

