A Disgrace to the Historical Profession

Mark Lewis Nov 04, 2022 

One of my graduate history professors made a statement in class once I have never forgotten: “Before you study the history, study the historian." This is indeed insightful. His meaning was simply that historians are people, too, and we are influenced by our beliefs, culture, traditions, etc. like anyone else. A good historian will try, as best as possible, to tell the historical “story” as accurately as he/she can, and such is not impossible. I firmly believe historical truth can be discovered. But there does exist a near-infinite amount of historical data available, and a historian does have to choose which of that data he uses. He can, and often will, be influenced by his world view. But some histories can be trusted because the historian tries to be honest. However, some histories (e.g., Howard Zinn’s) are kitty litterbox lining stuff.

Michael Beschloss has published several historical works; I confess, I’ve never read any of them because they aren’t in my historical field of expertise or interest. Though I have never written any “history” books (I do have two Western novels out, Whitewater and River Bend), I have a Master’s degree in the subject (never finished my PhD) and I did teach history at American universities and colleges in three different countries for almost three decades. Thus, I believe I know a little about the subject, but mostly because I learned (usually after grad school) which historians to trust, and which ones not to.

As noted, I haven’t read any of Michael Beschloss’s books. And I won’t because Beschloss is a diehard Democrat, a contributor to MSNBC’s drivel, and, maybe I am being unfair, but that’s enough to disqualify him as any kind of “objective” historian, in my humble opinion.........To Read More...