Kerby Anderson

It’s relatively rare for an academic paper to generate a conversation in the popular culture. But that is what happened when James Sweet published a column on the history and impact of “presentism.” He is a professor of history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the current President of the American Historical Association.

He criticized the idea of “presentism,” which is the tendency to view events in the past through the lens of contemporary politics. He received quite a bit of criticism for his column. Two days later, he issued an unneeded apology.

A few weeks later, TV host Bill Maher focused his monologue on the issue and started a larger dialogue on this topic. Regarding slavery, for example, he observed that “everybody who could afford one, had a slave, including people of color.” Slavery was not a “uniquely American thing that we invented in 1619” because slavery “has been the rule, not the exception.”

My concern is bigger than even the issue of slavery or even the impact of “presentism.” My concern is that the President of the American Historical Association felt the need to apologize for telling the truth about the questionable trend in history. His apology sends three dangerous signals.

First, it shows that the president can easily be intimidated and cowed into silence. Second, it tells other historians that the president and the historical association won’t defend them if they take a stand that the cancel culture mob dislikes. Third, it sends a message to the public that the country’s largest and most important organization of historians won’t stand for truth and stand up to those who use political intimidation against it.

If there is a lesson to be learned, it is that we should never apologize for telling the truth.