She finds the whole idea absurd. To Prof Marci Shore, the notion that the Guardian, or anyone else, should want to interview her about the future of the US is ridiculous. She’s an academic specialising in the history and culture of eastern Europe and describes herself as a “Slavicist”, yet here she is, suddenly besieged by international journalists keen to ask about the country in which she insists she has no expertise: her own. “It’s kind of baffling,” she says.
In fact, the explanation is simple enough. Last month, Shore, together with her husband and fellow scholar of European history, Timothy Snyder, and the academic Jason Stanley, made news around the world when they announced that they were moving from Yale University in the US to the University of Toronto in Canada. It was not the move itself so much as their motive that garnered attention. As the headline of a short video op-ed the trio made for the New York Times put it, “We Study Fascism, and We’re Leaving the US”.
Starkly, Shore invoked the ultimate warning from history. “The lesson of 1933 is: you get out sooner rather than later.” She seemed to be saying that what had happened then, in Germany, could happen now, in Donald Trump’s America – and that anyone tempted to accuse her of hyperbole or alarmism was making a mistake. “My colleagues and friends, they were walking around and saying, ‘We have checks and balances. So let’s inhale, checks and balances, exhale, checks and balances.’ I thought, my God, we’re like people on the Titanic saying, ‘Our ship can’t sink. We’ve got the best ship. We’ve got the strongest ship. We’ve got the biggest ship.’ And what you know as a historian is that there is no such thing as a ship that can’t sink.”
What an armchair thing to say
I don’t think that’s true at all but even if it were, sitting in an armchair in America is more helpful than sitting in an armchair in Canada which is what this lady is doing.
It’s quite a silly thing to get all high and mighty about. You don’t have that person’s life or thoughts/feelings.
It didn’t sound high and mighty to me. She left a position of influence and (some small amount) of power just when shit is starting to get real. Fair weather patriot. Best of luck in Toronto. I’ll stay here with the hundreds of millions for whom leaving isn’t a viable option.
Uh ok
I don’t need to know anything about this person to know that leaving is the cowards choice. She’s telling everyone else who can’t leave that they aren’t as important and they have to sort this out without her. Don’t try to spin that as some sort of noble act. We win together or we lose apart. I don’t want to hear any lectures on history or morailty from people who would rather save themselves than help their fellow citizens.
when my jewish grandfather learned that he wasnt allowed to hold a job anymore he fled germany before ww2 and he begged his then fiance to come with him. she insisted that it will be fine and if and when things get bad she will join him in america, and if they didn’t he should go back to live with her in germany.
Want to know how that turned out for his fiance?
Is your grandfather’s survival any consolation to the 6 million Jews that died during the Holocaust? Could he have helped more of them survive by staying? I don’t know the answer to those questions but I do know that if that’s what we’re facing in America I would rather face it head on with my fellow citizens than hide away in another country watching it happen to them.
he joined the army to fight the nazis so, yea it was better then him perishing in a camp alongside his entire family
You feeling personally attacked here isn’t the person’s fault, who, btw, I am not saying is doing something noble. Just pointing out how weird it is that you’re acting this way about it.
You started this conversation by saying that I’m making armchair judgements about this person. If you understand how serious the situation is and you agree with what I’ve said about what our response should be then you should be annoyed with her for running away while preaching about the danger we’re in too. If my house is on fire don’t lecture me from a safe distance about how to spot the smoke earlier, grab a fucking bucket.
So your problem is mainly with her not shutting up? I am not annoyed. If I had the means I’d move to europe, and nothing is wrong with that at ALL.