Hmmm.  Herein we see part of the problem, it seems to me.  

VA-HIST is emphatically NOT a blog, nor should it be, despite the best efforts of some to inject the vehement incivility of  contemporary politics into the discussion.  This is not, in the first instance, a forum about national or state politics.  

Yes, there is almost always a political dimension to the writing of history, if for no other reason than that the questions that motivate us quite often are shaped by the public order in which we live.  But what sets historical writing apart from contemporary political commentary, or indeed from other academic disciplines, is that we bring to our topic certain fundamental methods for truthfully describing and accounting for the past.  When history reduces itself to mere sophistry, we have collectively failed, it seems to me.

I'd like to think we are capable of a better, more rational, more civil, and more humane discourse here than the level of sophistic cant I see on so many political blogs.  Its sad to see discussion of history equated with the blogosphere, since I'd like to think some aspiration for getting at the truth still, somehow, remains part of what we do.  When we stop concerning ourselves about truth, in favor of the radical and destructive cynicism that pervades so much contemporary political discourse, we have lost something important to the continued existence and stability of our political order.  Surely we are better than that?

All best,
Kevin  
Kevin R. Hardwick, Ph.D.
Department of History
James Madison University

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