In the weeks approaching recent past presidential elections – after the party nominations were settled – groups of educators issued formal statements of support for the Democratic nominees for president, taking public stands as members of their profession.
But in an unusually early such action, a group of have issued a joint endorsement of Barack Obama’s bid for the presidency. The group includes, among many others, Michael Kazin, a professor of history at Georgetown University; Ralph E. Luker, a historian who is one of the leaders of the history blog Cliopatria; and two scholars who served in the past as presidents of the American Historical Association — Joyce Appleby of the University of California at Los Angeles and James McPherson of Princeton University.
Officials of the AHA (which was not a party to the endorsement) and other observers commented that they could not think of a similar case of historians collectively taking such a stand in a political race. (Inside Higher Ed)