Essay Archives

Bender

September 5th, 2011

Historians in Public

Submitted by Thomas Bender, New York University

It is no easy challenge to situate the place and role of academic scholarship into the public sphere. The main reason is that both “academic knowledge” and the “public sphere” have over time taken novel forms and are still being transformed into yet newer forms. And this means that figuring out the place of history […]

July 12th, 2010

Historians in Public

Submitted by Thomas Bender, New York University

[This is an older version. A completely revised and much extended version of this essay is posted here.] The experience of the past few decades has prompted the worry by many historians and social scientists that academic intellect has turned inward, cutting itself off from a role in public life. This is particularly significant for […]

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