View the H-Africa Discussion Logs by month
View the Prior Message in H-Africa's November 1998 logs by: [date] [author] [thread] View the Next Message in H-Africa's November 1998 logs by: [date] [author] [thread] Visit the H-Africa home page.
<Hosmer@UWYO.EDU> I'm not certain that this decline in history's standing within academe, or in the general society, is limited to South Africa. I certainly see it taking place in the US, and at my university where declining enrollment for history classes is considered as evidence that history does not really matter any more. While our "market based approach" for assessing relative value to academic departments is a bit different than the situation other correspondents have described, I do see it as a more general trend, one which essentially argues that studying history really does not address society's basic needs. It is true as well that US historians have been rather acquiescent in the devaluing of our profession.
|