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History matters
When it comes to understanding history we all draw from the influences we are exposed to, along with finding sources to fill in the gaps in our knowledge. Professional historians are not always academics, and conversely not all history academics have a public profile as a popular historian. Many of those who produce history content for public consumption in the forms of books, films, YouTube videos, and podcasts would not be considered academics because they do not submit their work for peer review or access historic archives to conduct novel work. This is not to dismiss their work, rather, it is to highlight the liminal gap between those who unearth the past and those who choose to narrate it. Most academic historians will produce a narrative thread between excavation and narration, especially if they want to reach a wider audience, so the line is often blurred. Yet, for most audiences it is not the academic research we consume it is the brevet notes and curated content that we engage with.
This ought to be a non-sequitur, especially as it seems obvious when you read any popular history. Most history content creators will readily admit they are not an academic nor do they wish to be. Yet, “history” carries a cache of its own freighted with propaganda no matter who is producing the content. This means that every touch point a person has with history content, be it academic or narrated, should always be…
