A former student contacted me recently to pitch an idea for a podcast series that would present key principles, realities, and hot topics in American politics. She observed that so much of the political discourse in the United States reveals a remarkable ignorance of the issues, how the political system works, and what can (and should) be done. As she put it, people lack the basic contextual understanding needed to intelligently consider these matters. She is hoping this podcast series can help remedy this by presenting these matters in a relatable manner. She was reaching out to me because, as someone who had taught her history, I had demonstrated the importance of historical context, and in a way that was highly relatable for students.   

I appreciated her reaching out to me, and not just for the proverbial pat on the back. She had inculcated a key lesson, which is the importance of context. Without context, it is difficult to have a good functional understanding of much of anything. This is really the point of studying history—to provide a context for understanding why things are the way they are. Too often, people try to function “a-historically.” As a result, they reach conclusions, make decisions, and take actions that prove to be flawed.  

Of course, as someone who teaches history, Isee its value. The challenge is to get students (andothers) to see the value as well. In many general education historycourses, I have had students who were not interested in history,and often for good reason. Many had poor experiences with it in priorclasses. It was presented as dry listing of “names and dates,” full ofpeople and events that seemed to have no bearing on their lives. The subjectseemed to be about things that remote from their interests and experience.Moreover, it seemed “dead,” a fixed story that is not interesting, andwill not become interesting because it does not change. In short, it wasnot relevant. As a history instructor, I realized some time agothat I had to overcome this prior experience, to sell themon the value of history. Thus, I typically begin a courseby explaining why we are studying a particular historicalsubject, emphasizing that it is not dry and dead, but a vibrant storythat has much to offer them. True, it has names and dates, butmore importantly, it offers a narrative rich in insights and“lessons” for them. It answers questions they have, explaining why thingsare the way they are. Of course, I have to follow through onthat throughout the term, ensuring that the course has an interesting andrelevant narrative. We engage with a lot of the usual history about wars andpolitics, but also about topics that many never realize have a history;these hit close to home and help them see the relevance of history to theirlives.  All that to say that anything has a useful history, and EmergencyManagement is no exception. 

As a result of my work at CBI, I havebegun digging into its history. What I’ve found is interesting. There is abasic narrative that appears in a number of resources that provides auseful framework. Beyond the information, it reveals that the history of EM israther recent, much like the field itself. Moreover, it tends to center on theexperience in the United States, which, one source claims, is the leader in thedevelopment of modern EM. This alone tells us much about the field, notablythat it is a relatively recent phenomenon and as such is in a developmentalstage. Moreover, it says much about its history. As with any subject, an earlyversion of its history comes out that is useful but incomplete; over time, thestory expands and evolves as new information, perspectives,and themes emerge. For a historian, a subject like this is thestuff careers can be made of, as one could write volumes to build thenarrative.  

Don’tworry – we won’t try to do that here! Rather, I will be writing aseries of blogs about the history we have so far, the aim being toprovide some useful context. This will involve some “names anddates,” but also insights about the work itself. With that,you will have a context with which to better understand the field goingforward.