Wednesday, December 13, 2006  Down with Interdisciplinarity? Or
Up with Legal History?  An article being discussed in the
blogosphere (e.g. Leiter Reports) is Anthony D'Amato, The
Interdisciplinary Turn in Legal Education. At a time when an
increasing number of law school hires have Ph.D.s, D'Amato
argues against interdisciplinarity.  One of D'Amato's claims is
that disciplines are like sects. "Disciplines and sects share
the trait that their primary audiences are themselves. They
proselytize their own initiates at great lengths before even
thinking of proselytizing outsiders. Internal reiteration and
refinement of the discipline’s core ideas always take priority."
(18)  Hmmm. It seems to me that in history, if anything the
current criticism is that historians are spending too much time
speaking to outsiders. The question instead has been whether the
pressures to write for a broader public undermine the careful
practice of history.  But perhaps D'Amato is not talking about
historians. As Dan Markel notes, D'A