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.”
With her particular specialty and the attacks on education, I would put her in the grouping of likely to be targeted. Once that happens, it is probably too late to leave.
As far as going to protests, I’ve seen those pics too and they are truly inspiring to see! I have imagined that all have a support system, though I could be wrong. I’m currently unable to stand or walk for long periods and hoping I am able to fully recover. Until then, Im in a state we moved to as adults, haven’t made any real local friends, don’t have kids or other family in the area, work different hours in a different city than my S.O. We are also in a red county in a red state that posts in our neighborhood sites freely, about being violent to any non-magas. I.e., running into the protesters with lifted trucks, doing drive-bys of their 2a rights, and get cheered on from the others on there. I had to go far from home to one of our big cities to attempt to protest for a little bit just so I could feel safer with a crowd. Luckily I am still able to drive or even that wouldn’t have been possible.
She is speaking up and bringing her expertise to those who can put the information to more strategic use. I will take all the help we can get.