Episode 54 - Presentism

Join us as we kick off An Incomplete History season 3 with a discussion of presentism. This week, we do a deep dive into the divisive debate happening within the field of history as the result of the American Historical Association’s president who wrote an opinion piece regarding our role as historians. The piece received extreme backlash leading to the AHA having to lock their Twitter account and many members canceling their memberships to the association. This week we talk about the concept of presentism, why the accusation was offensive to many historians, and what we could or should be doing to promote respectful debate and an open sharing of ideas in such a politically charged moment.