Silos and Schism in the History Department

Torn Flag

Not long ago I identified intellectual “silos” in the fields of climate science and economics.  The term refers to scholars within an academic discipline who do not communicate with one another. When one segment of a discipline doesn’t even read the prominent works of another, the discipline suffers.

What about history? In this post I will argue that history does have silos but what is troubling is not silos, but schism,  that is, a “split or division between strongly opposed sections or parties, caused by differences in opinion or belief.”

First, silos. If you are studying the impact of the Anglican Church on England’s Glorious Revolution of 1688 you may not have much in common with the professor researching the twelfth-century Anasazi in the American Southwest. Your intellectual coterie is likely to be composed of other professionals in your field (e.g., British history in one case, pre-Columbian American history in the other). Continue reading “Silos and Schism in the History Department”