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One Person's Activist is Another Person's Voice Part 1

·54 min·4 clips

A listener warns that history is being weaponized for political goals, sparking a deep dive into activist historians.

This episode explores the concept of "activist history" and the use of the past for present-day goals. The host, a Texas history podcaster, builds upon listener feedback about how history can be weaponized. He examines whether activist historians represent a new threat or a long-standing tradition. The host references a listener named Michael Sullinger, who suggested history is often used to fit a group's agenda or "life compass." He cites a 1910 introduction to the Harvard Classics noting that even impartial historians are subject to personal bias. Author Jorge Luis Borges and historian Walter P. Webb are quoted affirming that multiple interpretations of events are inevitable and healthy. The host mentions specific controversies like the book *Forget the Alamo* and Texas's 1836 project. Historian Richard Hofstadter, writing in 1968, observed that both conservative and progressive historians have long used the past as "counters" in contemporary debates. Frederick Jackson Turner, over a century ago, wrote that many historians treated their field as a partisan arena. The host lists several figures often viewed as activist historians, including Charles A. Beard, Howard Zinn, Eric Hobsbawm, and Gerda Lerner. He notes that conservative responses, like *A Patriot's History of the United States*, emerged partly in reaction to Zinn's work. The host dedicates significant time to the views of Western novelist Elmer Kelton, who criticized "politically correct chauvinism" and a modern tendency to seek villains instead of heroes in history. Kelton argued for balance, acknowledging past omissions regarding women and minorities while warning against peddling selective guilt. The host also shares perspectives from activist historians like Aurora Levins Morales, who view their role as restoring a sense of identity to oppressed peoples and revealing mechanisms of power. A South African proverb cited says, "until lions write books, history will always glorify the hunter." Historian Patricia Nelson Limerick concluded that the real question is not if an interpretation is right, but what the present-day value of historical understanding should be. A key insight is that the debate over activist history is cyclical, with similar conflicts appearing in the 1890s, 1960s, and today. The host emphasizes that honesty about one's perspective and adherence to proper historical method are more critical than the existence of bias itself. Elmer Kelton's view that early pioneers were "people five feet eight and nervous," not invincible heroes, challenges romanticized myths. The episode suggests that fear of new historical narratives often stems from a perception that they are destroying a cherished, familiar past. Activist historians explicitly aim to influence how people think, which some critics see as an agenda to change the current political landscape. The proverb about lions and hunters encapsulates the motive of many activist historians to write history from the perspective of the oppressed. The tone is educational and conversational, blending historical analysis with personal reflection and listener correspondence. The style is dense with quotations from historians, writers, and personal heroes, building a layered argument. This episode would appeal to listeners interested in historiography, the ethics of history, and contemporary debates over how Texas and American history are taught. Those seeking a simple narrative of historical events might find the meta-discussion too abstract.

As heard by us

A measured look at who gets to shape history, and why that still matters.

The episode starts with a listener note and uses it to ask a steadier question: how much of history comes from evidence, and how much comes from selection, omission, and purpose?

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Why you'd press play

For when you want history that asks who gets to frame the past.

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