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Ron Robin, Historians in Public: The Practice of American History, 1890–1970, Journal of American History, Volume 93, Issue 2, September 2006, Page 593, https://doi.org/10.2307/4486362
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Ian Tyrrell's study of the intricate relationship between American professional historians and the public offers an important corrective to the litanies of declinism that perforate most contemporary surveys of American historians. Tracking the fortunes of our discipline from the Progressive Era to the rise of the New Left, Tyrrell argues that concurrent hand wringing is nothing new, is terminally overstated, and by no means is an affliction particular to the guild of American historians. Exaggerated claims of irrelevance and marginalization are, according to Tyrrell, misreadings of the “ebbs and flows” that do little to affect the constant engagement between history makers and the public (p. 4). Tyrrell states that the declinism of previous studies of American historians stems in part from their limited horizons. Most inquiries into the historical profession rarely breach the ivory tower, or, conversely, they deal in isolation with major political crises. Such flash points tend to overshadow, if not distort, the constant and mostly positive dialogue between historians and a broad public seeking historical insight for contemporary dilemmas.
