Greg Neale

16 Historically Speaking March/April 2008 Do You Need a License to Practice History? the matter. Write the books, and the readers will come. But might this be a form of voodoo economics , as well as wishful thinking? Where will those readers come from? No matter how brilliandy written a book is, its prospective readers have to bring to it a basic level of historical knowledge, as well as an ingrained habit of reading, in order to feel "absolutely forced to turn the page." And the steady decline of historical knowledge, not to mention the decline of reading itself, in American education and American society more generally does not augur well, so far as the production of "educated general readers" (and buyers) is concerned. For now, the more trade-oriented academic publishers have absorbed some of the midlist books that would in the past have been published by commercial houses. But they, too, are squeezed, and there are limits to what they can do, particularly since the preservation of the educated general reader is not their principal mission . In short, it is only a short step from Hochschild's concerns to the more general problem of the inadequacies of American education, particularly in history. The steady abandonment of instruction in history by our schools and colleges shows no sign of reversal, and makes it a near certainty that the next generations of young Americans will lack even the sketchiest knowledge of their own country's historical development. In that respect, it has been painfully clear for a long time that Americans are being poorly served by their educational institutions , at all levels. There is, in short, a terrible and growing problem on the demand side of the midlist book market. Survey after dismal survey confirms the truth of that assertion. We have all heard the particulars so many times that perhaps we are inured to them. There is, of course, the general problem of the decline of reading, which the National Endowment for the Arts has most recently documented. But there are problems specific to history. There seems to be no organized willingness to challenge the entrenched power of educators who have relentiessly sought over a period of decades to displace the study of history in our schools with a social-studies curriculum An 1828 lithograph of John Adams. Library of Congress , Prints and Photographs Division [reproduction number, LC-USZ62-13002]. that they believe is more conducive than the "factgrubbing " specificity of history to the creation of useful habits of problem solving, generalization, and harmonious living. The triumph of social studies led to a whole series of subsequent disasters: the downgrading of history in state standards; the near disappearance of history from the primary grades; the weakening of standards for history teaching; and the replacement of real books with inane, plodding, politically correct textbooks that misrepresent the subject of history by robbing it of its narrative zest and interpretive fascination. It will take nothing short of a revolution in educational philosophy—a revolution that is unthinkable within the current structure of American public education—to reverse the trends. More money poured into the system will only reinforce the status quo and compound the historical illiteracy of Americans. In light of such dispiriting general conditions, one has to recalibrate one's expectations. Even the continued reading of historical books on the Big Three subjects is something to cheer about. After all, three subjects are better than none, and it is far better that they be these three subjects than an infinitude of other possibilities. Under such circumstances , the wide popularity of David McCullough's biography of John Adams, which sold over a million copies in cloth, seems nothing short of a miracle, and Sean Wilentz's salvos at it, and at American Heritage and the History Channel and the like, seem strangely out of touch with reality. So, while one inevitably feels great sympathy for Hochschild's perspective, and earnesdy hopes to see it survive and even prevail, one needs to do so with a more bracing sense of the full scale of the obstacles . It is not just a problem of the books, but of the audiences for them; and...