What Kind of History Content Even Works Anymore?

My hope to break away....from myself.

My life has taken a chaotic, strange arc over the last few years. School finally wrapped. I have my PhD in History to sit on my shelf and collect dust next to my Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees. I graduated and was all gung-ho to jump into the freedom of creating content, writing, researching, and learning away from the crushing burden of writing a dissertation and trudging through classes.

Freedom came. Now, I’m more confused than ever.

With a wife in medical school and kids to take care of, I’ve been wrapped up in this weird limbo of stay-at-home dad, housekeeper, career adventurer, writer, and historian life now for over a year. I have no time. I’m desperately broke. One thing is for certain: I desperately want to produce something, I just don’t know what.

There is no shortage of overly opinionated essays in my space. They make everything political or some cultural commentary. I have to be honest: I am so bored with all of that. With America’s political obsession over the last decade, I am burnt out. Everything seems to turn political. It’s reached a point where any podcasts on politics or culture bore me to tears in minutes. I want to be intellectually satiated in a new way.

On the other end of the spectrum, we have this clickbait-riddled, AI-driven, “engagement baiting, vomiting of content that is often just regurgitated from one creator to another, or outright BS. Creators scrape the bottom of garbage barrels like Reddit or ancient Facebook posts to jam your newsfeed full of meaningless “history.”

One thing is for certain right now. People need history. They need good history. Not something that’s politically motivated or pushed to set a narrative.

On platforms like Substack, readers don’t just want a history lesson, like a long list of pointless facts they’ll forget ten seconds after sending your email to the trash bin. They don’t want preaching either.

I’ve tried several times to figure out what exactly History on a Whim is on Substack, and I think it’s time to take a turn. It’s time to break away from impostor syndrome!

Impostor Syndrome is extremely common for people like me, who have gone through the long, mud-filled trenches of academic sludge. One day, after your dissertation defense, your advisor goes, “Congratulations, doctor,” then you're done. That’s it. Five seconds ago, I was the student. I was the amateur. Now, you’re a professional. Now, you have the knowledge, right? Here’s that piece of paper to hang on your wall. The one that costs more than a house. Now what?

That’s been the hardest part for me to overcome over the last year. It’s embarrassing, honestly. I’ve tried my hand at a few things here and there, but something is very real about this impostor syndrome thing.

History on a Whim is going to take a shift to what I actually do. I analyze. I research, analyze, compare sources, digest the things I read, see, and find, then I give you my honest take. This was something that I spent years training up to do.

That’s coming next.

History on a Whim will no longer just be a recounting of historical episodes. That stuff will be in there, but think of this page as an experiment now. It’s one where I will test my ideas, opinions, philosophical ruminations, and my writing. It’s a place to experiment with a mix of narrative history, factual analysis, and hopefully something you actually want to read.

It has honestly been a hard year. With a wife in the most rigorous portion of medical school, along with kids, another on the way, and little time to tack down a full-time job, this is one of my many avenues to support my family and fund my research.

Hopefully, my readers will understand where I’ve been. There are plenty of articles coming, where I have been working hard on giving you a new spin. One that’s both educational and interesting. I want you to actually take something away from history, not just forget it the instant you look away.

There is plenty of garbage out there. People are churning out clickbait like mad. The AI revolution has polluted your newsfeed with unoriginal, unfounded garbage that will just dilute our understanding of history.

Thanks for coming along for the ride.

Time for me to release myself from this prison of self-consciousness.