Never Have so Few Given so Little about Nothing of Importance Whatsoever

I thank the most recent edition (summer 2020) of the Columbia Journal of History for helping make the point that serious history, as an academic rather than political discipline, is dead in our universities. Here is a list of the current articles published, mind you, IN A HISTORY JOURNAL:

The first paper presents an argument for an America unprepared for an “internet catastrophe”.

The second paper “analyzes a graphic novel about migrants relocated by the French” as a window into “the marginalized, silenced, or hidden history of laborers” who have contributed so much to French society (of course, the last bit is an assumption that cannot be contested).

The third paper traces “the emergence of the ‘fancy-trade’ in the American South. Hmmm… what is the ‘fancy-trade’, you ask? Who knows! It’s not explained in the precis, but apparently it owes its existence to the Southern planters’ “desire for domination in the slaveholders’ republic”.

The fourth paper examines — finally! — the history of gambling women of the 1790s in England. It’s about time someone got to this fertile and important field, don’t ya think! Make some space on your shelf between the Gibbon and Braudel. And you’ll be happy to hear that this ‘study’ deals with “normative ideals surrounding women’s bodies and behaviors”.