Fixing the Present Requires an Understanding of History

After a week of looking back at older posts from this blog, some thoughts on history from John Oliver. As he says, in order to deal with our difficult present, we must understand the history of how we got here. Resolving our struggles toward equity and ending systemic racism are made much difficult by the gaps in knowledge that have happened due to the way that history has been (and still is) taught in this country. As Karin Wulf quoted from Hamilton early this week, it matters, “who lives, who dies, who tells your story.”

*Note that the video below contains language that some may find offensive. Given the pandemic, I’m not sure if the term “not safe for work” is still relevant, but if so, consider this nsfw.

David Crotty

@davidacrotty

David Crotty is a Senior Consultant at Clarke & Esposito, a boutique management consulting firm focused on strategic issues related to professional and academic publishing and information services. Previously, David was the Editorial Director, Journals Policy for Oxford University Press. He oversaw journal policy across OUP’s journals program, drove technological innovation, and served as an information officer. David acquired and managed a suite of research society-owned journals with OUP, and before that was the Executive Editor for Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, where he created and edited new science books and journals, along with serving as a journal Editor-in-Chief. He has served on the Board of Directors for the STM Association, the Society for Scholarly Publishing and CHOR, Inc., as well as The AAP-PSP Executive Council. David received his PhD in Genetics from Columbia University and did developmental neuroscience research at Caltech before moving from the bench to publishing.

Discussion

2 Thoughts on "Fixing the Present Requires an Understanding of History"

Thank you for sharing this. Always a fan of John Oliver. Over the past 25 years I have been shocked and saddened to learn what was not taught in the white, college prep suburban public schools I attended growing up. Oh, the education was good, but the deliberate omissions were and are criminal.