John Sullivan sent a link to this op-ed column by Stanley Fish. It's a perfect illustration of Keith's Law, which says that authoritativeness is inversely proportional to partisanship. Historians are partisan; ergo, their authoritativeness (as disinterested inquirers) decreases. One can assume that historians, like other academics, want to be (and be seen as) authoritative, so it's puzzling why they would undermine their authoritativeness by being so partisan. I chalk it up to stupidity, which proves something else: stupidity is compatible with advanced formal education. I've been in academia my entire life. Academics are as stupid as anyone.
Keith’s Law
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