Having known several History teachers and lecturers, they always seem to dress and act as thought they are an era behind the rest of humanity. Is it just my experience or have others also noticed the Historians are behind the times.
Rather a sweeping set of ideas I know, but prove me other wise 
!!! I couldn't prove it without introducing you to them, but the last four history teachers I've had haven't been anything like that. Some of my math teachers have been though (no offense to anyone here who teaches math).
History is relevant to the now too, because history always repeats. If we learnt from the lessons of our past as humans the world would be a different, better place.
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| Some of my math teachers have been though (no offense to anyone here who teaches math). |
Hey I am a retired Maths teacher-perhaps I recognised traits in myself and see them in others???? haha, i think that historians don't live in the past.
Because of their extensive knowledge of the past they have a better understanding on whats going on today.
Besides i'm going to be a teacher some day... history and english so NO historians don't live in the past 
I was definitely thinking of the History programs like "Time Team" on the box (TV to the none Brits), where they do seem to always relate to bygone eras rather than the present, and tend to dress the part-One is the Profeessor from Bristol Universtity, and the head of the dig team is a real neanderthal. However they do have some eye candy tobrighten up the programme. Being rather sexist I admit.
as a historian (I'm currently in a PhD program), I think I have a good perspective on this question. Yes, there are plenty of historians that are weird, nostalgic, etc etc. Most historians (including myself) are a little odd. After all, we have decided to go to school for 6 years to basically read books and write papers. That's a little odd. And, once we get out, we do the same stuff for the rest of our lives. It definitely takes an odd sort of person to do that. In any case, while we're all a bit weird, a lot of us are normal. I dress normally, perhaps even a bit radically. I go out. I don't just talk about history all the time. Not all historians are like this, but just like any other group of people, there's a wide range of people.
Live in the past? No. Know about the past and ways to compare it to the present? Yes. If more people knew history, they would be more reluctant to do certain things that, in the past, led to horrible situations.
Do historians live in the past? Only as far as you would claim that plumbers live in the gutter ... .
@jhoenig:
I am deeply offended that you would call historians weird, odd, ... . I majored in history and I am no odder than the next guy ... what's that?? ... . Quiet! QUIET! ... who is that? ... damn these voices ... no, George, the Potomac is not THAT deep ... and it's probably frozen anyway ... wimp.
Now where was I ?! ....
Maybe they dressed that way to get their students more interested in history...
To me, they live in the present, but that's the problem. I feel like they never get the history quite right; there's always something "missing" from that history. And I'm not talking about missing a date or an event, but maybe I can describe it as being unreal.
I don't think historians live in the past.
In fact, they give us a good window to the past years so that we can learn from the mistakes that mankind has made in the past years.
If I remember my history teacher he has been one of the most dynamic teachers I have ever had. He brought history to the present moment, made it alive. I think that is how it should be.
The only way that history can be learned or grasped is in the present moment. Never in the past. If it is presented in the past, then it has to be very boring. But if you touch students in the present moment with history of the past, then that is an art of teaching history.
I had history two years ago and the teacher I had, lets just say she didn't look like any teacher for history, more like an arts teacher. Red/orange lipstick, colorful clothes with patterns, and she as a person was spontaneous and fun to be around, she always wanted us to think out of the box if we could too. One of the best teachers I have ever had.
All i can say is that I am attempting to become a historian and I live in the library!
Just what I was getting at living with the head stuck in some moldy old book 
getting lost in things long gone 
The past is 2 minutes ago. Do we all live in the past, now has gone because, by the time that you have said "NOW", it has already gone......
Is the past yesterday, or 1066ad? Both probably!
Oh in this context, we always live in the past cause when we think about things as they happen, because there is a small time delay in our thoughts, of course time has moved on and so it is in the past. OK so now we might get a dicussion going on about just what time is and how it is made up etc etc
Most intellectuals have blinders on to reality and the rest of the world.
No one can really, truly and honestly claim to know what the public mood at the time was for events in the distant past with limited historical accounts from the time period. Much of what they engage in is speculation.
I am wondering why you are so smart as to care about what they dress. It is said that beauty is only skin deep, and outward appearance is no more than nothing to inner virtue...
