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Kinds of historians, a preliminary taxonomy
1) Someone who describes all encounters with primary sources as "geeking out."
2) Wants to relive their "cool years"
3) Pissed off about something, trying to figure out how to destroy it.
4) Nosy, wants to read people's secret documents
1) Someone who describes all encounters with primary sources as "geeking out."
2) Wants to relive their "cool years"
3) Pissed off about something, trying to figure out how to destroy it.
4) Nosy, wants to read people's secret documents
5) Thinks the past is a bizarre, orderless vortex of chaos. The OCD demands that sense must be made of it. (it me)
6) Thinks the past was better, gotta get back to it.
7) Depressed Marxists doing "revolutionary escapism"
8) Former journalists wanting to escape word limits.
6) Thinks the past was better, gotta get back to it.
7) Depressed Marxists doing "revolutionary escapism"
8) Former journalists wanting to escape word limits.
09) Tricked out of doing philosophy.
10) Tricked out of doing lit.
11) Tricked out of being a scientist.
12) Saved from political science.
10) Tricked out of doing lit.
11) Tricked out of being a scientist.
12) Saved from political science.
13) (pre-)postmormon (at least where I'm from)
14) Just likes old magazines
15) Saw Mad Men
16) Saw the Patriot
17) Saw Saving Private Ryan
18) Reformed conspiracy theorist
19) Newt Gingrich
14) Just likes old magazines
15) Saw Mad Men
16) Saw the Patriot
17) Saw Saving Private Ryan
18) Reformed conspiracy theorist
19) Newt Gingrich
20) Just trying to figure out what the hell happened in the 70s.
21) Just trying to figure out what the hell happened in the 90s.
22) Just trying to figure out why monks and nuns were like that.
23) "Yung Clausewitz"
21) Just trying to figure out what the hell happened in the 90s.
22) Just trying to figure out why monks and nuns were like that.
23) "Yung Clausewitz"
24) Just trying to find a sufficiently esoteric aesthetic
25) 20s Comintern drama reenactor
26) So committed to the symmetry principle that they think phlogiston could be real.
27) Operationalizing their Anglophilia/Francophilia
28) WESTERN CIVILIZATION
25) 20s Comintern drama reenactor
26) So committed to the symmetry principle that they think phlogiston could be real.
27) Operationalizing their Anglophilia/Francophilia
28) WESTERN CIVILIZATION
29) Learned the word "lacunae," must fill
30) "Nothing better is possible, I checked"
31) Latter-day modernization theorist.
32) Picked the most dad-friendly humanities field
33) Seemed like people would mostly leave you alone.
30) "Nothing better is possible, I checked"
31) Latter-day modernization theorist.
32) Picked the most dad-friendly humanities field
33) Seemed like people would mostly leave you alone.
34) Trying to figure out all the ways people were goth before being goth even existed.
35) Perving out on old pornography
36) Convinced yourself you had to write 9000 pages on LBJ nearly 50 years ago.
37) Thought you could ctrl+f archival docs.
35) Perving out on old pornography
36) Convinced yourself you had to write 9000 pages on LBJ nearly 50 years ago.
37) Thought you could ctrl+f archival docs.
38) Biding time while you work on your novel
39) The one person in your department who studies your country/region/continent, smdh.
40) Ghostwriter for a former Clinton administration official.
39) The one person in your department who studies your country/region/continent, smdh.
40) Ghostwriter for a former Clinton administration official.
41) Very committed to making the world understand that a "new" thing is actually very old.
42) Very committed to making the world understand that a "old" thing is actually very new.
43) Actually studies statues and historical memory is tired of your "statue history" jokes.
42) Very committed to making the world understand that a "old" thing is actually very new.
43) Actually studies statues and historical memory is tired of your "statue history" jokes.
44) Dad was a history professor.
45) Mom was a history professor.
46) Mom and dad were history professors.
47) Technically a sociologist, but hates talking to people.
48) Feeding a FOIA addiction
49) Searching for a usable past.
50) Genealogist (Foucaldian and/or Family History)
45) Mom was a history professor.
46) Mom and dad were history professors.
47) Technically a sociologist, but hates talking to people.
48) Feeding a FOIA addiction
49) Searching for a usable past.
50) Genealogist (Foucaldian and/or Family History)
