A Revealing Look at OAH Finances

Lee W. Formwalt is stepping down as Executive Director of the Organization of American Historians. His latest article in the OAH Newsletter reviews the past decade. One of the surprising things revealed in his article is the extent to which the OAH has been losing younger historians.

In 1999, 43 percent of OAH members earned less than $60,000 a year. By 2008, that was true for only 24 percent of OAH members. Perhaps one of Formwalt's purposes in writing this article is to advertise the range of OAH activities and projects. He may hope that younger historians will be persuaded to support such worthy causes through the payment of membership dues. His essay also be a response to a blog post I wrote a few months ago. See for yourself how many of the questions I raised were addressed, answered, or avoided in Formwalt's essay.