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(There are 2 messages below. -ed.)
1.
Submitted by: Lee Blackwood
blackwd@pantheon.yale.edu
I would like to second wholeheartedly Gerald Feldman's very
sensible presentation of the case for an alternative to the AHA as it
currently exists. His point about comparing the program of the forthcoming
Historikertag in Frankfurt with the recent programs of the AHA is well
taken and worth serious reflection. I suppose a Trotskyist might take
consolation in the notion that the jargon-filled
silliness and intellectually irresponsible epistemological relativism put
on such prominent display at the AHA gatherings serve the
cultural-political agenda of such "historians" as Newt Gingrich. I,
for one, find it especially disturbing that these trends threaten to
squander the immense gains made in American scholarship thanks to the work
of colleagues like Gerald Feldman, who transformed the study of history
here in the States into an enterprise taken very seriously by historians
in the societies we study.
lee blackwood
yale university
2.
Submitted by: Milton Goldin
MiltonG525@aol.com
Gerald Feldman writes about the AHA from the perspective of
a jaded professional historian tired of backbiting,
rivalries between advocates of different outlooks, rivalries
between individuals who want the same positions, rivalries
between individuals who simply want to be noticed,
rivalries, period, and the need for an organization that
offers rational and equitable solutions to common problems .
Now for an appreciation of the AHA from an individual who
has different axe(s) to grind. I am not a "professional"
historian, I am a businessman and a writer. There are
several historians whose work I admire (Dr. Feldman is one),
and I see a growing chasm between what scholars know about
World War II and about the Holocaust and how the public
perceives these subjects. So unless we want a public whose
members base their opinions exclusively on Stephen Ambrose's
understandings of how men behaved in combat or on Daniel
Goldhagen's understandings of German society (as reflected in
_Hitler's Willing Executioners_), it is incumbent on the AHA
to encourage those of us who do not work in academies to
seek the advice and counsel of those of us who do -- via
professional organizations such as the AHA.
This is what happened a few years ago when I attempted to
join the AHA:
(1) I wrote the executive director asking for membership
qualifications. I was not favored with a response. Because
the letter was never returned to my office, I assume that it
was received at the AHA office. I wrote a second time, with
the same result.
(2) I contacted a well-known writer and TV personality,
who I knew to be an AHA member. He advised that non-
professionals, like me, have to be invited to membership.
No invitation, no membership.
The AHA was chartered by Congress, so I suppose that an
American citizen who inquires about membership should at
least receive the courtesy of a response. I am also a World
War II veteran -- my experiences were somewhat different
from those Mr. Ambrose describes -- a member of Phi Beta
Kappa, with an earned graduate degree, and two books and
seventy published articles in respectable periodicals.
The AHA can't have done more to antagonize me, had it
deliberately set out with that idea in mind. My
question is Why? Unless the whole idea is to draw up
wagons. I certainly am not competing with anyone for a
position, so what is the sense of keeping me out of the
membership?
Meanwhile, historians can't find positions, and primitives
at all levels of government want to cut funding for the
humanities. As I heard one local politician (Westchester
County, New York) declare six months ago, "Who needs so many
historians? Everyone knows what happened.")
An explanation from the AHA why it takes this position on
members would be welcome. This organization begins to smack
of a political correctness in which tragedy has long since
become secondary to comedy. Meanwhile, from my perspective,
so be it. I don't need to belong to an organization that demonstrates
this kind of contempt.
- Milton Goldin
MiltonG525@AOL.COM
National Coalition of Independent Scholars (NCIS)
 Humanities & Social Sciences Online 
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