Journalists don’t often get the best press from historians, and not without reason. The study and practice of history is built on the particularity and specificity of events, on localized facts that we craft into delicate, nuanced arguments. Our colleagues… Continue reading

Those who keep abreast of social media, and particularly those who have been preparing courses for the spring term, have probably heard about ChatGPT, the newest assault on academic integrity. With a few clicks, panicked commentators breathlessly tell us, your students… Continue reading

C’est quoi Gritty?” (What the heck’s a Gritty?) asked a reader of Le Monde in November 2020. “[Un] icône de l’extrême gauche américaine” (an icon of the American Far Left / of extreme American bad taste), replied the French paper. In the run-up… Continue reading

In April, the New York Times ran an op-ed interviewing “8 conservative men” who (according to the Times’s social media) all came to the conclusion that “this is not the America I remember growing up in.” The so-called newspaper of record had, in other words,… Continue reading

The [conspiracy theorist] is all idée fixe, and whatever he comes across confirms his [theory]. You can tell him by the liberties he takes with common sense, by his flashes of inspiration, and by the fact that, sooner or later, he… Continue reading

The dean asks the professor of Old English how her curriculum can respond to the fact that soon less than half the college students on the West Coast will claim English as their native language. Can Old English rely any… Continue reading