Presidential Addresses

Presidential Addresses

Since the Association was founded in 1884, the Association’s presidents have addressed the annual meeting on a topic of interest or concern to the profession. Since there is no set topic, the subjects treated have ranged widely from the role of history in society to the best practices of historians as writers, teachers, and social scientists. Each in their unique way represents a microcosm of the interests and concerns of the profession in various stages of its development over the past century.

AHA staff, with the assistance of JSTOR (which graciously supplied the basic electronic text for most of the presidential addresses between 1901 and 1990), and the staff of the American Historical Review (which has published the presidential addresses since 1901), is publishing the addresses as a service to all interested in tracing the changes in the profession, or just reading the words and ideas of some of the most esteemed members of the historical profession.

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