Bret Devereaux: History enrollments falling far slower than departments shrink (meaning much of the enrollment loss is lack of teachers!): historians.org/research-and... 7/

If we're talking history jobs (for it is the discourse in The Other Place), what you actually need to know is this: - In 2008, hiring for history profs dropped by nearly half and never recovered. - As a result, history departments are shrinking and history education in the USA suffers. 1/

- This is a result of political choices to defund history and the humanities generally, as we dis-invest from our universities and universities shift funds to administration, student life and STEM. - History remains popular with students, but it is increasingly less available. 2/

- This is exacerbated by a culture of callous disregard among many (not all) tenure-track faculty towards non-tenure track academics. But fundamentally the issue is that so long as the field is being shrunk much more rapidly than student enrollments, all problems get worse. 3/

Fundamentally, what the public needs to understand about academic history are not the current political buzzwords, it is this: Our students, and you are being actively robbed of the great public history programs your tax dollars, and those of your parents, built. 4/

Americans deserve high quality, rigorous, accurate and careful historical education, but outside a handful of elite private institutions, the system that produces that is being dismantled out of a mix of political malice and short-sighted, self-interested mismanagement. 5/

Alright, data to back that up. Hiring data for history is here: historians.org/ahajobsrepor... (and see earlier reports). Shrinking departments, see muse.jhu.edu/pub/17/artic... Continued high public value in history: historians.org/research-and... 6/

The 2023 AHA Academic Jobs Reporthistorians.org While the number of academic job listings for historians continues to be stable, there has been a decrease in tenured or tenure-track positions.

History enrollments falling far slower than departments shrink (meaning much of the enrollment loss is lack of teachers!): historians.org/research-and... 7/

An Uncertain Trend: The AHA’s 2022 Survey of History Undergraduate Enrollmentshistorians.org Our newest data on undergraduate enrollments raises new questions.

Finally, me on the dangers of cuts to the liberal arts broadly: nytimes.com/2023/04/02/o... Me on the particular danger to national security of the decline of history: foreignpolicy.com/2024/03/10/t... Me on the financial mismanagement of US public universities: theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv... 8/

Opinion | Colleges Should Be More Than Just Vocational Schools (Published 2023)nytimes.com Elected officials have pushed vocational programs at the expense of the liberal arts. That’s hurting America.

Finally, it would be really great if some of the high profile historians with far greater reach than me who work from secure positions at elite private universities would use their platforms to advocate for our field. It shouldn't be NTTs out here, leading the charge, it should be you. /end

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