Circulating. Will's observation on academic and popular historians.

George F. Will has reviewed, and strongly recommends, Chernow's new book on U. S. Grant.  I'll pick a copy of it up.

But that's now why I'm linking this in here.  No, rather, it's for this observation:

Chernow's large readership (and the successes of such non-academic historians as Rick Atkinson, Richard Brookhiser, David McCullough, Nathaniel Philbrick, Jon Meacham, Erik Larson and others) raises a question: Why are so many academic historians comparatively little read? Here is a hint from the menu of presentations at the 2017 meeting of the Organization of American Historians: The titles of 30 included some permutation of the word "circulation" (e.g., "Circulating/Constructing Heterosexuality," "Circulating Suicide as Social Criticism," "Circulating Tourism Imaginaries from Below"). Obscurantism enveloped in opacity is the academics' way of assigning themselves status as members of a closed clerisy indulging in linguistic fads. Princeton historian Sean Wilentz, who is impatient with academics who are vain about being unintelligible, confesses himself mystified by the "circulating" jargon. This speaks well of him.

Worth noting indeed.