A large professional history establishment can coexist with public historical oblivion

Evidence

In the United States we have perhaps the greatest example of the neglect of history. Here, despite an enormous historical establishment comprising vast numbers of tenured historians organized in departments and societies and producing libraries of books, one cannot but be struck by the lack of a sense of history in the society, in the public discourse, and even, more specifically, in the conduct of government. — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 1811

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to ongoing debates on public humanities and why professional scholarship fails to reach audiences — parallels arguments in the Frankfurter School cluster about academic isolation from the broader public.