Fire the historians
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How bizarre.
These historians oversee unbiased accounts of U.S. foreign policy. Trump fired them all.
The volumes of the Foreign Relations of the United States have been written since Abraham Lincoln’s time.
The Historical Advisory Committee — “the HAC,” in Washington lingo — is made up of nine academics nominated to serve rotating terms by the biggest and most prestigious associations in the discipline. That’s what the 1991 statute mandated.
According to the committee chair, the associations have heard nothing more from the Trump administration about maintaining the committee since receiving the termination letters just weeks before their next gathering.
Trump issued executive orders in March stating that he wants to shape the narrative of U.S. history in curriculum and museums to avoid “a sense of national shame.” But disbanding a committee created under President George H.W. Bush won’t impact the way the story of Trump’s administration is told anytime soon, historians said.
The committee reviews classified material and covert actions from past administrations that have reached the 30-year mark, which allows them to be declassified.
“Right now, the office is still trying to get volumes out from the Reagan era,” said James Goldgeier, a professor and former dean at American University’s School of International Service, who was chair of the HAC before he was fired. “There’s no work that’s being done here regarding the current administration.”
Goldgeier said he suspects the committee’s dismantling may be part of the federal firings that have been the hallmark of Trump’s first 100 days.
“It just seems to me like they just got a list from all the agencies” of federal advisory committees, he said. “I can’t imagine they looked much into what any of the particular ones did. And I don’t know that they understood that this one is congressionally mandated.”
The firings don’t hold up as a cost-cutting move to target government waste, said Melani McAlister, an American University professor of American studies and international affairs who served on the HAC and got a stipend of about $250 for each of the quarterly meetings.
“It’s not about the money,” McAlister said. “The idea that this is somehow about government efficiency can’t be true.”
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How bizarre.
These historians oversee unbiased accounts of U.S. foreign policy. Trump fired them all.
The volumes of the Foreign Relations of the United States have been written since Abraham Lincoln’s time.
The Historical Advisory Committee — “the HAC,” in Washington lingo — is made up of nine academics nominated to serve rotating terms by the biggest and most prestigious associations in the discipline. That’s what the 1991 statute mandated.
According to the committee chair, the associations have heard nothing more from the Trump administration about maintaining the committee since receiving the termination letters just weeks before their next gathering.
Trump issued executive orders in March stating that he wants to shape the narrative of U.S. history in curriculum and museums to avoid “a sense of national shame.” But disbanding a committee created under President George H.W. Bush won’t impact the way the story of Trump’s administration is told anytime soon, historians said.
The committee reviews classified material and covert actions from past administrations that have reached the 30-year mark, which allows them to be declassified.
“Right now, the office is still trying to get volumes out from the Reagan era,” said James Goldgeier, a professor and former dean at American University’s School of International Service, who was chair of the HAC before he was fired. “There’s no work that’s being done here regarding the current administration.”
Goldgeier said he suspects the committee’s dismantling may be part of the federal firings that have been the hallmark of Trump’s first 100 days.
“It just seems to me like they just got a list from all the agencies” of federal advisory committees, he said. “I can’t imagine they looked much into what any of the particular ones did. And I don’t know that they understood that this one is congressionally mandated.”
The firings don’t hold up as a cost-cutting move to target government waste, said Melani McAlister, an American University professor of American studies and international affairs who served on the HAC and got a stipend of about $250 for each of the quarterly meetings.
“It’s not about the money,” McAlister said. “The idea that this is somehow about government efficiency can’t be true.”
@wtg said in Fire the historians:
How bizarre.
Trump issued executive orders in March stating that he wants to shape the narrative of U.S. history in curriculum and museums to avoid “a sense of national shame.”
I hope the historians are still around and free to write the story of national shame relating to the Trump administration in 30 years.
Big Al
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Historian Heather Cox Richardson started her Letters from an American substack specifically with history scholars of the future in mind. https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/
