Revitalizing Our History Efforts

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John,

History education is in crisis. This week the ** Department of Education ([link removed])
released data indicating that only 13% of the nation's eighth graders met the proficiency standards for American history. In higher education, American history courses are ** disappearing from college campuses ([link removed])
at an alarming rate. To teach the story of America and its founding ideals, it is critical that the discipline of history is healthy both inside the academy and out.

At the Jack Miller Center, this is part of our core mission. We have spent nearly two decades building a network of scholars in American political thought and American history.

In the field of American political thought, the Jack Miller Center has made a transformational impact. We have built a talent pipeline for a generation of scholars in American political thought, seeded and cultivated centers for the study of American political thought on about 100 campuses, and launched and sustained the flagship academic journal for the field: ** American Political Thought Journal ([link removed])
.

Yet of the 1,000+ scholars in our network, only 180 are historians. To be clear, they are making a difference in their field.

JMC fellow ** Andrew Porwancher ([link removed])
received the 2021 Book-of-the-Year award from the ** Journal of the American Revolution ([link removed])
for his book, ** The Jewish World of Alexander Hamilton ([link removed])
.

JMC fellow ** Jonathan White ([link removed])
has been named a co-recipient of the prestigious 2023 Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize for his recent book, ** A House Built by Slaves: African American Visitors to the Lincoln White House ([link removed])
.

And JMC board member and prize-winning historian ** Wilfred McClay ([link removed])
has made a profound difference in awareness of America’s history through his remarkable book ** Land of Hope: An Invitation to the Great American Story ([link removed])
.

Even so, much work remains to be done in the field of history. I believe the Jack Miller Center can play a big role in reviving American History in the academy, in the classroom, and beyond. By investing in talented scholars and educators who share our mission, we can advance the teaching of American citizenship while preserving academic freedom.

Needless to say, much work remains to be done in the field of history, and in my first year as president of the Jack Miller Center, I have made this a key priority.

In the fall, we formed a staff History Working Group to devise ways to examine how the JMC can better engage with American historians.

Over the past several months, members of our staff have been working hard to reconnect with the 180 historians already in our network, explore new partnerships, and engage with historians outside of our network. Led by our talented Resident Historian and Editorial Manager ** Elliott Drago ([link removed])
, we have been enlisting scholars to appear on the popular radio and podcast program “** Our American Stories ([link removed])
,” interviewing American historians in our network for upcoming posts on JMC’s American Arc blog, strategizing about how to increase number of historians in our cornerstone JMC Summer Institute for rising scholars, making new connections with museums and presidential libraries, and exploring future investments in postdoctoral fellowships for American historians.

Much more to follow on all of this.

Of course, to really grow our work in the field of American history, we will need the support and investment of fellow citizens who see the need and want to join us in this work. We are hoping that you will consider standing with us to advance the work of American historians who are dedicated to keeping alive the founding principles and traditions that make this, as Wilfred McClay has called it, the “Land of Hope.”

All the best,
Hans Zeiger
President, Jack Miller Center
** [email protected] (mailto:[email protected])

** jackmillercenter.org ([link removed])


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