Let's say you're a history blogger who has written 10 essays on modern US history post-civil war, and 10 on post-Mao China...
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Replying to @vgr
But you've lived 20 years in the US and have known 1000 Americans descended from the period you've blogged, vs 1 wk in China and 3 people
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Replying to @vgr
To my knowledge that's an inaccurate, straw man-esque version of how academic history gets done.
@nils_gilman, care to comment?1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes -
Replying to @micostigan @nils_gilman
I'm talking more about non-academic 'big' history of the sort that shapes politics.
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academic history seems mostly narrow and circumscribed to stay away from political action
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Replying to @vgr @micostigan
Professional historians root themselves in documents/archives. It's rare to be in immediate contact with one's protagonists
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Replying to @nils_gilman @vgr
Sure. But if a professional historian was looking at late 20th century China, they'd do more than 1wk in country 3 people
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Replying to @micostigan @nils_gilman
but somebody trying to rile up the twitter mobs on breitbart otoh... the less ground data the better
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Replying to @vgr @micostigan
True, but let's please not call those folks "historians" just because they claim to write about the past
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nature abhors a pop-big-history vacuum I'm afraid. Where angels fear to tread, fools create the future... 

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