Present at the meeting from H-PAD were Margaret, Van, Andor, Jeremy, and Marc.
Four other people came, one Monica Kim U of Wisc. and one a grad student at Colombia U., one a grad student from Cornell, one a teacher from Cornell.
The meeting mainly consisted of discussing the paragraph Andor wrote and we all approved in the last H-PAD newsletter post the Nov 2018 elections. My notes are copies below and attached.
Notes from H-PAD Meeting at the AHA 2019
We should say exactly why we are against Trump and why. We need to say what we are for.
We should discuss what we can and can’t do with the Democratic Party. The paragraph is too tactical.
How can we effectively affect politics?
How can we take and inject a historical view of the present?
Our commitments are being weaponized and we need to respond.
There has been very little response to the National Security State and a definite ratcheting up of militarism and threats. The peace movement needs to continue and we also need to be part of it and the anti-nuclear movement.
[Again] we need to build the agenda and not just be against Trump. We don’t talk enough about our agenda or the state and politics.
What about Trump and Russia?
What about having debates in the newsletter? For example, have people respond to the post-election paragraph and comment on it. Or, for example, debate, “Is there a crisis?”
What difference does it make it there is or there isn’t?
Is our newsletter too presentist? We need to connect historians to a movement so that people who come to our site are activists. We should leverage that.
What about working in high schools or with high school teachers?
Do a Webinair with Barbara Ransby.
What do people need in terms of broadsides?