I highly recommend David Frum’s 10/30/2022 article in the Atlantic entitled “A New History War“. Frum’s article explores a controversy stirred by James Sweet’s 8/2022 article, “Is History History”.
This morning I read the NYT 1/8/2023 article about Sweet. I then followed links which led me to read the related articles below. But if you want a one-read suggestion, I’d suggest Frum’s article.
Here is a timeline of related articles with links:
- 5/1/2002 “Against Presentism” by Lynn Hunt
- 8/2019 “The 1619 Project” posted in NYT (wiki article)
- 8/17/2022 “Is History History?” by James Sweet
- 10/30/2022 “A New History War” by David Frum in the Atlantic
- 1/8/2023 “As Historians Gather…” NYT by Jennifer Schuessler
Question to readers: What do you feel about the historical methodology pull between “presentism” and “antiquarianism”?
Triangulations 
To me, it seems, everything in the USA is about percieved race. If there is a research on who eats sausages, the racial demographics are part of the results. The pull between “presentism” and “antiquarism” appears as no exeption.
Here in Finland much of historical study has been about the last century. Our time of indipendence has been seen as the “actual” history, that really happened to real people and that is our own history worth researching as it tells us who we are and what is our national identity. Lately, older history has started to interrest larger crowds of audience and of academia. It has been finally seen, that if we do not research our history as part of Sweden, the Swedes certainly are not going to do it for us, other than scratching the surface.
Public interrest affects science funding. But what the public gets from history is identity, or just entertainment. History becomes meaningfull to us only if we can relate to it. Much of public gets their wiev of history from popular culture, but as art owes nothing to reality, the interpretations are often wild and as much as history can teach us morals, the morals of the public may be affected by their perception of history and either grown, or diminished according to the historical view and it’s accuracy.