Today's quote of the day is actually three quotes, all on the practice of writing history, come from Bruce W. Dearstyne's "The Progressive President and the AHA: Theodore Roosevelt and the Historical Discipline," published in the September 2025 issue of Perspectives on History from the American Historical Association.

The first two are from early 20th century historian Allan Nevins[^1] (1890-1971):

"The world at large will sooner forgive lack of scientific solidity than lack of literary charm. The great preservative in history, as in all else, is style." — from his 1938 book *The Gateway to History

"With the demise of the romantic, unscientific, and eloquent school of writers, our history ceased to be literature." — from his 1959 AHA presidential address

Dearstyne shows that these issues are still relevant by following these quotes with a quote from contemporary historian Jacqueline Jones:

By making stories about the past available to all sorts of publics, scholars seek to counter mythmaking and contribute to a broader educational enterprise — one that is essential to the future of history and, indeed, democracy itself." — from her 2021 AHA presidential address

While I agree with these quotes as to the necessity of making history entertaining so that people will want to read it, I don't think that this has to come at the cost of accuracy. If fact, I think it must not come at the cost of accuracy. If only Jones had deleted the words "stories about" when writing this sentence — thus making it clear that accuracy is required when writing history — then I could agree with it wholeheartedly.

[^1] I found it interesting to note that Nevins had only an MA in history, the same as me, and yet he was able to become president of the AHA in 1959, whereas today an MA in history is (in my experience) basically useless.