The current situation in Washington, DC is unprecedented. And much of it is detrimental to millions of people who benefit from federal public health initiatives, environmental regulation, medical research, climate change mitigation, consumer protection, and more.
The AHA monitors this rapidly shifting landscape on a daily basis. More than a decade ago I expressed skepticism about the rhetoric of “disruption”; we are now seeing what happens when “move fast and break things” migrates from a thoughtless aphorism to truly dangerous public policy.
Despite the breadth and depth of the official (and unofficial) chaos the AHA must adhere to our policy of keeping a tight focus on history and historical work if we are to remain effective. We also continue to spend substantial time and energy on history education in the states. We can be most effective expending our limited resources on what we know best, where we have leverage (e.g. Congress rather than the executive branch), and what is appropriate to our mission. Our next Congressional briefing (March13) for example, will focus on the history of deportation. We will soon organize another on the history of the Civil Service. Recent letters statements, and op eds have focused on the National Archives and Records Administration and, in collaboration with the Organization of American Historians, the inflammatory and factually distorted executive order “Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling.” Watch this space for more in the coming weeks.
We also are not alone in this work and I highly recommend this commentary by ACLS president Joy Connolly on recent policy statements from the Department and the National Endowments for the Humanities.
~Jim Grossman