Part 3: Why Academic Historians Should Thank Their Colleagues on Social Media and Why They Are Important for Democracy

This is my third blog post on historian Earl Hess’s article on the Internet and Civil War history that appeared this week in the journal Civil War History.

According to Hess, three quarters of Civil War historians never or rarely read anything in their field on social media. No Tweets, podcasts, blogs, facebook, etc. This conclusion is based on surveys he conducted, wait for it, in 2013 and 2016! I have commissioned public opinion research. No one relies on surveys conducted six years ago for a report. Given the ease of conducting an online survey of the relatively small universe of Civil War academics, Hess offers no explanation for why he did not fire up Survey Monkey earlier this year to poll the profs. I have my suspicion. His internet averse colleagues might have fled at the sight of mail delivered electronically instead of by a United States Postal Service letter carrier.

Apart from the suspect character of the poll used by Hess, there is the suspect character of those quoted. Take for example this quote from well-known historian Allen Guelzo:

Guelzo thinks social media’s influence has been “entirely negative.” “I consider blogging to be a pernicious waste of scholarly time. It seems to me that blogging serves to undermine large-scale, detailed research work and encourages those with little to say to say it as though it were some authoritative utterance. Blogging is like cheap grace—it demeans the real article, which is scholarly inquiry.”

Reading this, you might think that Professor Guelzo himself eschews any popular forums for speaking to the public and sticks only to “large-scale detailed research work” and “scholarly inquiry” published in peer-reviewed books and journals. He would, you might assume,  certainly avoid forums where politics as blood sport dominate. If you thought these things, you would be wrong.

Much of Guelzo’s most-read writing appears not in scholarly monographs but on the ultra-conservative National Review website, in the pages of the Rupert Murdoch-owned Wall Street Journal, and on the Fox News web site. None of it has footnoting or any scholarly accoutrements. Recently, Guelzo has tried to use his historian’s credentials to defend the presidency of Donald Trump.

Guelzo does not explain why an assistant professor posting occasionally about her research on a blog undermines the academic project, but his own writing for Fox News does not. You have to question why Guelzo would warn a young professor that her scholarly work will be undermined if she blogs, while Guelzo himself publishes non-scholarly articles for mass consumption comparing Donald Trump to Abraham Lincoln!

I have written three pieces this week on the journal Civil War History’s report on how college professors use (and don’t use) the internet not because I have contempt for them, but because I have so much respect for them and their work. I read history because I think it is important. As an attorney, I must understand the history that gave rise to our laws, and the history of their implementation. As a citizen, when I see a problem in our society, I want to understand how we got this way. I often turn to historians to better my understanding.

Far from creating a swamp for those of us interested in the history of the Civil War and Reconstruction Era, the advent of the internet has begun a new Golden Age. People with limited resources can now delve deeply in primary sources from the 1800s in free online archives. They can take David Blight’s Yale course on the Civil War for free, and enjoy Eric Foner’s Columbia University course on Reconstruction as a MOOC. They can go to one of the most popular social media platforms, YouTube, and watch short explainers from professors on subjects of interest that were made using an iPhone.

Groups of historians can share their thoughts with one another over Twitter, allowing folks outside the academy access to the discussion. And we are allowed to chime in even if we are not on the tenure track.

Yeah, there is garbage out there in Social Media World, but it is not going to disappear because scholars stay off the ‘net. Scholars who engage through social media can help teach us how to evaluate the bogus nonsense masquerading as “the truth about the Civil War.”

Social media also breaks down the isolation that many academic historians feel. It allows them to speak with lay people who are not experts, but who often have a passionate interest in their subject. Contrary to the assertion in Hess’s article that these readers are merely fawning acolytes of the historian, I have seen many instances where social media followers of these online professors challenge the evidence and conclusions of the historians and offer sources that they have unearthed on the web. This should make the final published scholarly work of the historian better, not worse. Before social media, a university professor might only “speak” to the “reading public” every decade or so when he published a book. Now, he can talk to the public at his leisure whenever he wants to go online.

The last few years have convinced me, if I needed convincing, of the massive knowledge gap in America. Bullying younger professors off the web by established academics only serves to leave the place where Americans are now most likely to get information in the hands of crackpots and Russian Bots. I want those who are most knowledgeable about the Civil War and Reconstruction to weigh in, not because I will bow to their authority, but because I appreciate the insights that their years of wrestling with their subjects give them. I also like that they will get pushback from other academics and from others who choose to weigh in. Some of these colloquies may descend to the level of mudslinging, but I have also seen some that reminded me of the dialogues of Socrates.

64% of Americans have less than a bachelor’s degree’s worth of formal education. When an historian makes herself available to the public through social media, instead of being shamed by the Civil War historian establishment, she should be recognized for her generosity in democratizing education. We need public intellectuals who can tell us about our past, without the myth and politicized distortions. If history is worth studying, it is worth allowing the American public to read on blogs, listen to on podcasts, and watch on YouTube.

I understand that some historians may be afraid to go online and dive into social media. They may have seen themselves unfairly treated in a blog, or perhaps they Tweeted for the first time and a mob of Neo-Confederates mugged them. I feel so sorry for them.

I write more than 200 blog posts every year on the Reconstruction Era, Immigrants during the Civil War, and Immigration Law. You know what? Sometimes I get negative comments. Big deal. I am not going to let trolls stop me from trying to share my knowledge with people who want to learn more. And, in reality, the really nice people I get comments from outnumber the trolls a hundred to one! For those professors who are afraid to blog because they might get a negative comment, you can always “Unapprove” a comment on your own blog. I almost never do because I think that the ignorance of the few haters usually speaks for itself.

In my field of blogging we organize trainings on how to use social media. These are not one hour workshops on “Social Media and Society” like I have seen at some academic conferences, these are two-day trainings that give hands-on instruction in front of computers on how to use YouTube, podcasts, facebook, Twitter, etc. This training model could be followed fairly easily by those at universities, especially since they could call on colleagues in the communications, media, and computer departments to serve as instructors. Training a hundred history profs in social media communication and then having them go online the next week could really help the conversation about our nation’s past and how we got this way.

Finally, I want to say that I really appreciate the dozens of Civil War and Reconstruction Era historians who are already using social media. I talk to many lay students of the period who absolutely rave about the work you folks are doing. You are allowing them to stay engaged with history years after they finished their last formal history class. You are also the front line of the pushback against the fake facts and false narratives that would overwhelm us otherwise!

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