AHR Forum Essay: Can We Save the Present for the Future?

Historians are dependent on archives. They constitute the basic building blocks of our scholarship. However, Roy Rosenzweig argues in this Forum Essay, in the future, scholars trying to understand our time will likely face a very troubling and indeed ironic prospect: the archival record of our era may be too scarce or too abundant. In either case, the basic scholarly mission of historians will be challenged in fundamental ways. Rosenzweig argues that historians today have a professional and ethical obligation to address this issue now. It is, he insists, at the core of our responsibilities as scholars as much as is the production of scholarship itself. Indeed, he contends that the connections between these twin responsibilities must be remade, because we have allowed them to wither over the years. This can be done, he maintains, by first understanding the complexities of the problem and then devising solutions that include reestablishing connections with potential allies such as archivists. His message is clear: The problem is dire, the need for action immediate. Rosenzweig invites responses to his plea for understanding and action.	1
And so do we. This Forum is the sixth installment of a format in which we solicit comments from readers rather than commission responses to be published along with the essay. We will host a moderated electronic discussion between Rosenzweig and those who wish to comment on his essay. The discussion will take place September 1–15, 2003, on the AHR web site at http://www.historycooperative.org . Participants can send questions or comments of up to 700 words. Guidelines will be posted on the discussion sign-in page. Our primary goals for the discussion are to make the exchanges as open and useful as possible and to ensure that they comply with the established standards of the AHR. After the discussion has concluded, the exchanges will become a permanent part of the electronic version of this Forum Essay. Questions about the process can be sent to the American Historical Review, 914 E. Atwater Ave., Bloomington, IN 47401, or to our e-mail address: ahr@indiana.edu .	2

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