COLLOQUY

THE QUESTION

RESPONSES

BACKGROUND

Some historians have banded together to form a new professional association, the Historical Society, to serve as an alternative to the American Historical Association and the Organization of American Historians. Leaders of the new group, such as Eugene D. Genovese and Donald Kagan, say its emphases will be on research and ideas. They blast the A.H.A. and the O.A.H. as focusing too much attention on current political issues and matters of race, class, and gender. Although the leaders say that they want the group to be ideologically diverse, many of its organizers are conservatives. Some scholars -- including some liberal professors -- are welcoming the new organization. Others see it as a new club for conservatives who are hostile to recent trends in scholarship and to the increased diversity of the professoriate. Is the Historical Society needed? Are the A.H.A. and the O.A.H. less useful than they once were or now could be? Should they be reformed, replaced, or praised?

For further background information, see this Chronicle opinion piece:

• "Saying Their Field Is in 'Disarray,' Historians Set Up a New Society," 5/8/98

39 RESPONSES (New 6/1)

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