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George Will gets a lot wrong in this column./1
Higher education has become a net subtraction from reasonableness https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/higher-education-has-become-a-net-subtraction-from-reasonableness/2019/11/13/01071ae6-0574-11ea-b17d-8b867891d39d_story.html
Higher education has become a net subtraction from reasonableness https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/higher-education-has-become-a-net-subtraction-from-reasonableness/2019/11/13/01071ae6-0574-11ea-b17d-8b867891d39d_story.html
What he tells as a tale of natural market forces is largely a function of a massive decline of public investment in state universities. /2 https://www.chronicle.com/interactives/statesupport
Here's another piece on public disinvestment in higher education and the costs being offloaded onto students and their families at many public universities. /3 https://www.cbpp.org/research/state-budget-and-tax/a-lost-decade-in-higher-education-funding
Furthermore, Will echoes the claim of a British critic that historians have abandoned “great matters of state” by concentrating on “the marginal rather than the powerful, the poor rather than the rich, everyday life." /4
First, why are "the powerful," "great matters of state" and "the rich" inherently more interesting that other topics? /5
Second, don't the study of slavery, colonialism, and imperialism necessitate examining the actions of the powerful, the state and the rich, among other things? /6
Furthermore, many great, bestselling works of history have taken what are supposedly "marginal subjects" and shown them to be central. Think about Natalie Zemon Davis's "Return of Martin Guerre or Robert Darnton's "Great Cat Massacre."/7
There is more to say, but, I have a class to teach, so let me add one last thought for now. When I started teaching at the University of South Carolina in the 1990s, the legislature provided about 75% of our budget; by the time I left in 2014, it funded about 10% of our budget./8
One of the byproducts of these cuts in funding is that students and their families have to pay far more in tuition, which, in many cases, makes them feel that they have to choose a lucrative profession to pay off their debts./9
Even though many studies show that the humanities provide great training for well-paying jobs, what many students and families constantly hear is that only STEM training will enable them to recoup their investment./10
So, I'm not sure that the subject matter and approach of historians is responsible for the decline in history majors in the U.S., as much as decisions by legislatures to underfund public education, combined with a general disdain for humanistic study as "not practical." /11
Finally, I only have anecdotal evidence, but my sense is that history enrollments have gone up in the last few years for a whole variety of reasons, including our current political moment and a lot of innovative, thematic course offerings. /12
Nothing against "David McCullough, Ron Chernow, Rick Atkinson, Nathaniel Philbrick, Richard Brookhiser" but there are a lot of women and African American historians writing powerful, readable histories on relevant topics, like @marthasjones's work on "birthright citizenship."/13
