I have a story that perfectly illustrates the extent of the problem. As you know, I did a Ph.D. in Spanish literature at Yale University. The first two years of the PhD are dedicated to taking courses, not only in your own discipline but also a couple of electives in whatever field that you find interesting.
One of the electives I chose was in history. It turned out to be one of the best courses I have ever taken in my life. It was about the kind of Europe that was destroyed and the kind of Europe that was created by WWI. I can still remember the entire reading list from the course, even though it’s very far from my area of interest and anything that I do in my research.
All of the students in the course, except me and one other person, were pursuing a Ph.D. in history. These were people who willingly chose history, not because it’s likely to bring big money, but apparently because they’re interested in history. They were Ph.D. students in History at Yale.
On the first day of class, the professor said, “OK, let’s get the basics out of the way before we start talking about the material in the course. When did World War I begin? When did it end? Who fought, on which side and why?”
And guess what? Nobody except me and one other person who was in English could answer any of these questions. Nobody knew the exact years. Several students advanced the idea that Germany and Russia were fighting on the same side. Nobody had ever heard the names of Archduke Ferdinand and Gavrilo Princip. The professor was aghast. I finally rattled out all of the information. But yes, I was shocked. That people who are getting PhDs at Yale would not know something like this was bizarre.
This was in 2004. So it’s not DEI or wokeness or anything like it that was causing this. This was not one of those obligatory courses that people who are trying to get a degree in engineering or nursing are forced to take. It was an elective for future historians. So is it really surprising that an elementary school teacher in Illinois manages to teach about the Holocaust without ever mentioning the words Holocaust or Germans?
I can’t say that I knew about World War I because anybody specifically taught me about it. I knew because I read a lot, and you end up coming across this information if you’re widely read. One student in that course explained his ignorance by saying that his area of specialization was WWII and not WWI. As if you could remotely understand anything about WWII without knowing what happened in WWI.
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