| How should historians respond to the urgency of this current political moment?  Illustration by Mark Harris In a new piece, Emma Green tells the story of James Sweet, a white professor of African history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and the former president of the American Historical Association (A.H.A.), who has become a central figure in a controversy about the politicization of history. At the heart of the dispute, which has extended beyond academic circles and become its own “mini news cycle,” is a column published in A.H.A.’s magazine last summer, titled “Is History History?” in which Sweet criticizes “The 1619 Project,” among other things. The backlash was swift—“many observed that Sweet’s targets for criticism were nearly all Black,” Green writes. And while support, often from “other white, male professors,” also rushed in, many did not want to agree with Sweet publicly. As Green writes, “Sweet has become a stand-in for the fight over how historians should meet the urgency of this current moment in American life—the risks of sitting battles out, and the risks of getting too invested.” Help shape the future of the New Yorker app. Take a brief survey » | 
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