A while ago, I stumbled across an online question asking what the difference was between professional and amateur historians. I found the question and the ensuing discussion to be fascinating, the answers ranging from having a master’s degree to the differences between volunteering and getting paid and whether it is one’s primary source of income to being published in a peer-reviewed journal to writing and blogging.
It is a question I have dealt with my entire academic career, especially as an older graduate student. Gone are the days when I thought I could don the flannel shirt and teach history to eager young minds at some small university. My career took me down the legal/financial path. So why, then, was I bothering to get a graduate degree in history when I would probably not go on to get my PhD? I struggled to identify myself as a historian. After spending more time going down the rabbit hole of what is the difference between a professional and an amateur historian, I discovered more schools of thought and division. There seems to be a difference between academic (paid) and amateur (non-paid, volunteer). There is a division between having a degree and not having a degree, between BA and MA and a PhD. The type of research, peer-reviewed, non-peer-reviewed, published, and non-published in academic journals (a posting on this topic is coming soon). For a long time, I struggled with this question myself, was I a historian, or was I a person who just read lots of history books and lectured my friends about where historical drama movies got it wrong (admit it, you do it too)?
I found this definition on Wikipedia, “A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time.” It is hard to imagine a blander description of one who studies and brings the past alive for future generations.
In thinking about this, I realized the following: Over many years, I have taught students about the use of and limitations of air power in war. I have interviewed and taken the oral histories of veterans. I have written and published articles and blogs for oral history projects and other history groups. In all this time, I have never been paid. Still, the question begs, am I a historian? I think the real question is have I used my education and training to further people’s knowledge and understanding of their past? To that end, yes, I have. Whether paid or not, published or not, I am, in fact, a historian. And if you do these things, so are you.