AHA again

The History News Network contains links to bloggers attending this year's American Historical Association convention in Seattle. One of these, Jonathan Dresner, estimates that "well over half of the people who come to this conference are here because of jobs: interviewing or being interviewed. Most of the rest are presenting papers or selling books." That means that with few exceptions [most of those representatives of publishing companies] the attendees are people involved in job searches or putting lines on their vitae. Such is the state of the historical profession today.

Back in the Progressive Era [roughly the three decades up to and including the First World War, although there is a good deal of disagreement among historians as to when "progressivism" began and ended, or for that matter whether it even existed or what it was if it did actually exist] when the social sciences and professional associations were aborning, it made sense for professional historians to meet regularly to engage in the critical exchange of ideas. Those were heady times. Think how exciting it must have been to have listened to Frederick Jackson Turner present his paper on "The Significance of the Frontier in American History" at the Chicago convention in 1893, the discussions that followed, the sparks of imagination set off in that room that day. Ahhh!

The intellectual utility of the meetings continued well into the second half of the twentieth century, although the increasing ease of communications lessened their importance. I still remember the thrill of my first AHA presentation as a graduate student back in 1973. I actually got some useful comments. Over the years, though, the thrill wore off and I began to look more critically at the annual gatherings. It was nice to see people again, to renew friendships and the like, but there was little in the way of intellectual stimulation to be found. Eventually I just quit going.

Advances in communications in recent years have rendered the annual meetings almost completely irrelevant. The internet makes it possible to communicate directly with people in your field, to keep abreast of current trends, and to disseminate your ideas and arguments widely. If you are not involved in a job search there is no real reason for attending a meeting. In a way it's sad.