Julian Zelizer on Mistakes Historians Make

Princeton history professor Julian Zelizer has a fascinating article in The Atlantic today about mistakes historians make when appearing as news analysts. Zelizer’s position is that there are five common stock phrases historians misuse when making TV and other media appearances. The first is “unprecedented.” By contonuiually asserting that actions or events are unprecedented, Zelizer argues historians undercut their own credibility. Equally troublesome are bad analogies. Contending that something is just like another event in history often fails to account for nuance and the facts of the prior situation. Another problematic assertion is that history is cyclical and that we are currently in one cycle or another of history. Zelizer notes this theory has largely been debunked and collides with the “messiness” of real-world politics. He also rails against using quotations out of context. He believes the quotation is best thought of in the time period and circumstance it was made rather than being coopted to serve some other purpose.

Zelzer reserves his harshest criticism, however, for historians who attempt to use history to justify partisan actions. He faults these historians for putting forth arguments that only fit their political beliefs and end up skewing history as a result. While he mainly faults conservative historians for this, he also acknowledges that liberal historians do this as well by failing to admit failure of certain policy they favor. Zelzer urges historians to instead provide the long view and act as a counter to the narrow time frame of most news and social media analysis. This is a lesson we should teach our students, particularly as it pertains to consumption of social media and other news outlets in the digital press.