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A Historian’s Response to “We’ve Never Been So Divided”
The tone of our current public discourse has led numerous pundits to conclude that as a nation we have “never been so divided.” Often it sounds as though we have fallen off the precipice and are now in free fall toward some disastrous end. In situations like this, historians tend to suggest that taking a broader historical perspective is essential. This session will help you gain that perspective. We will start by asking if there have been similar moments in our past, and if so, what can we learn from them? Have we been able to recover? How, why, and at what cost? And to demonstrate the complexity of causation, we will sort through our more recent history to see what it reveals about the multitude of incremental changes that combined to shape our current situation. Of course, an historian would argue that you can’t begin to address the problem until you understand how it came to be. Dr. Ken Jones taught courses on various aspects of recent US history at CSB+SJU from 1976 to 2022 and feels that he had the best possible career. He was named the S. Mary Grell/Robert Spaeth Teacher of Distinction, and is now Professor of History, Emeritus.