7. In responding to Michelle, @yeselson brought up historians who make strong claims: Eric Foner, Linda Gordon, Eugene Genovese
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Replying to @HeerJeet
8. But the strong claims of those historians are battle-tested: have survived the rigorous self-criticism of historical method
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Replying to @HeerJeet
9. To understand how battle-tested a historian's work is compare Genovese the historian with Genovese the polemicist.
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Replying to @HeerJeet
10. Genovese the historian makes strong claims about slavery -- many of which are controversial -- but they are grounded, qualified claims
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Replying to @HeerJeet
11. By contrast, when reading Genovese the polemicist we see what his mind was like without the discipline of history to give balance.
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Replying to @HeerJeet
12. To give you and idea of Genovese the polemicist: he once argued the selective execution of drug dealers would benefit USA working class
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Replying to @HeerJeet
13. As much as I disagree with much of Genovese on slavery, as a historian he's never as unhinged as he was in political writing.
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Replying to @HeerJeet
14.
@michelledean's thoughts were sparked by this Jezebel piece, which suffers from a fatal glibness: http://jezebel.com/saartje-baartman-the-original-booty-queen-1658569879 …1 reply 0 retweets 2 likes -
Replying to @HeerJeet
15. Academic historians can and do write stupid or silly things, but they are stupid and silly in a way different from that Jezebel piece.
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Replying to @HeerJeet
16. If academic history teaches us to be aware of the strangeness of the past, then popular cultural journalism often hides that strangeness
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17. Every genre has its special pitfalls. Part of the craft of writing is figuring out what those pitfalls are and working around them.
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Replying to @HeerJeet
18. The pitfalls to cultural journalism that
@michelledean identifies are real, but they can be resisted and worked around.1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes
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