Posted on 12/11/2018 7:55:14 AM PST by C19fan
A recent study confirms a disturbing trend: American college students are abandoning the study of history. Since 2008, the number of students majoring in history in U.S. universities has dropped 30 percent, and history now accounts for a smaller share of all U.S. bachelor’s degrees than at any time since 1950. Although all humanities disciplines have suffered declining enrollments since 2008, none has fallen as far as history. And this decline in majors has been even steeper at elite, private universities — the very institutions that act as standard bearers and gate-keepers for the discipline. The study of history, it seems, is itself becoming a relic of the past.
It is tempting to blame this decline on relatively recent factors from outside the historical profession. There are more majors to choose from than in the past. As a broader segment of American society has pursued higher education, promising job prospects offered by other fields, from engineering to business, has no doubt played a role in history’s decline. Women have moved in disproportionate numbers away from the humanities and towards the social sciences. The lingering consequences of the Great Recession and the growing emphasis on STEM education have had their effects, as well.
(Excerpt) Read more at warontherocks.com ...
——there is no FUTURE in History!-——
I’m sorry but you made me do it
History is history!
That’s incredibly painful to watch.
I’ve considered getting a degree in history since I’m retired. However, I reckon I’d be thrown out of most classes for refusing to submit to their PC-ness.
Library Science is in fact a viable option for history majors, as both compile information. Librarians though, store & retrieve it; historians interpret it.
I actually know one.
P.J. O’Rourke called his 1911 edition of Encyclopedia Brittannica “The only reference I really trust,” so the solution is at the local used book store. :)
Librarians have to be PC, nowadays.
“I frustrated a liberal once, and said that CE stood for Christian Era.”
I am SO going to steal that.
Thank you Agnes. Perceptive.
However, note that this Yalie does NOT mention those of us who have in the last three decades been using history to fight in the public square, including Burt Folsom, Bill Forstchen, Newt Gingrich, Phil Crane, John Leyman, Victor Davis Hanson, and myself.
There are a lot of us out there writing traditional (good) history, including David McCullough, Paul Johnson, Mike Allen, Newt Gingrich, Bill Forstchen, Burt Folsom, Paul Kengor, and Dinesh D’Souza.
The problem is caused by a lack of popularity it seems among undergraduates.
Since history professors have pursued smaller and smaller niche subjects in order to have something “new and original” in their PHD dissertations, the profession has become more insular despite the claims of widening the scope to include all the niches beloved of the Social Justice Warriors.
Very true. I work at a library; I had considered library school, but the profession has gone full libtard, and LGBT to boot.
Ditto for editing -- my moonlighting profession (& real love). Professional editing journals & organizations are obsessed with diversity. They are also filled with anti-Trump rhetoric.
Soon any profession in the humanities, & probably social sciences, will be off limits to conservatives.
I went to a state college in the late 1950s, and it was an economic struggle for my parents. I was a General Science major and Spanish and education minor. Changed majors after Sputnik. Found it was hard to get a job in science without a masters or PhD. Hard to get any other job without typing and shorthand. My late husband had a BS in business subjects, finally took classes to get a teaching job. Neither of our sons had much interest in college. Now in their late 40s one has 20+ years in Special Forces and the other his own small contracting business. I came to the conclusion that if one enjoyed reading, the only classes that were really necessary were those in Science and language. As for degrees and advanced degrees, the ones that made/make sense are Medicine, Law, and Sciences. I became interested in therapeutic nutrition and as my health improved and need for sleep diminished spent one hour a night reading about therapeutic nutrition and related health material. Then I began to teach classes and counsel others to improve their health. So, as you say, “read everything.” I have read a lot of so-called “professional” “facts” that based on mymuch broader reading know to be false or incomplete.
A recent example here at FR, a posting of an article which said that a million+ year old hominid in Europe was unlikely because the middle east coastal area had an unfavorable climate for migration. Didn’t these “scientists” know that the Mediterranean had frequently been mostly dried up during that time span?
Currently I am enjoying collecting information for two historical novels around 1799 and 1902.
We can be peeved about the BC/BCE change, but given that only 1/5th of the world population is Christian, and we hope to be read in English in other parts of the world it probably makes some sense, especially if we hope to convince others that our ways are better.
Your story is impressive and inspirational.
I’m sure your sons are aware that you have continued your education and accumulation of knowledge. It’s a big world, and there is always some line of study one has not yet done.
Always a flavor one has not yet tasted.
Heck, I learned about BCE and CE when I was 8 years old in Hebrew School. I think you can probably figure out why we never went in for "in the Year of our Lord" stuff.
Funny, I considered doing the same thing. Also helps that I've been volunteering at the County Historical Archives for years now. I also decided against it for the same reason you give.
What would be great is to have a degree program that uses "professors" solely to make sure that the material you are studying makes sense for the degree. Nothing more, nothing less.
I had a history professor tell me I should consider history as a major when I'd crapped out of my first major, problem was (as I told him) the janitor on my dorm floor was a four year grad with a history degree from that very university. He suggested that such people just didn't want to leave the university environment, but agreed that a minimum of a master's degree was needed to get anywhere, and a doctorate to teach. He also amusingly noted that a couple of his candidates were in Central America and he was going to spend Christmas break down there with them, helping them sort something out, mainly because of the risk that they might be changing to anthropology. :^)
“history is history”
UNTIL they REWRITE it....
That's my recollection, that BCE/CE came from Jewish scholars, and got mainstreamed.
I got that beat. I was brought into a conference with the head of the Spanish department when I was a freshman. I was told that my Spanish was so good that I should become a Spanish major. They needed a Spanish major or two to keep their status as a separate department or something.
I was given a tour of the Casa Hispanica, and was told I would have the run of the place including a key to the front door among other perks. Further, my grades would always be A/A+ and that would put me in line to be Valedictorian of my class. Such are the machinations behind the scenes of the world of academia. I should have taken the deal.
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