A great way to have academics transform parts of their dissertations into accessible, engaging writing for the general public is to pay them for that work.

It's okay that there are two different forms and forums for engagement w/scholarship. But it can't all be for free.

In the current climate, I know I'm not the only historian whose dissertation will remain the only large work I produced. I'm proud of it and I always will be. Anyone can download it and read it--for free.

It wasn't supposed to be the last thing I wrote. It was supposed to become a book. I would have loved for it to become a book that the general public could read. You want to know why it won't?

It's not because we write in jargon. It's not because we want to be insular and talk only among ourselves. It's not because we can only write in forms that are inaccessible to general audiences.

It's because so many of the topics we study and so many of the audiences we could engage with about those topics aren't considered "valuable" by the people and outlets who could facilitate that engagement.

That's not entirely true, though. These topics and engagements can generate $$. But the constant denigration of academic history as "niche" and "insular" and "navel-gazing" facilitates a system where many of us are told we have to write for free because our work isn't "valuable."

If you're not seeing academic historians publishing trade books on a topic that's close to your heart, it's not because no academic historians are studying that topic, or feel too good to share their work with the world.

It may just be because they've been told their work isn't valuable enough to invest in bringing to a general audience that reads history. That should make you mad, because it means YOU are also not being recognized as part of the general audience that reads history.

Until society transforms and we have another easily-transferable way of communicating value, this is what we're left with. If you want accessible but rigorous history writing for a general audience, support it--and the people who work hard to create it--with your dollars.

Also all of this: https://twitter.com/ATobolowsky/status/1266120394047619072