In 2014, social media is the fastest form of communication, and there is an outlet for anybody and everybody to express their interests and opinions. With this comes a new way to present and discuss history, even while it is happening. Blogging provides a niche for any area of the past to be analyzed and discussed in public, by anyone from Ph.D. historians to journalists to the general public.

With no rules, history blogs can be anything. Blogs can cover any number of topics from modern musings of Cardinal Wolsey, discovery of treasures, or general historical fun facts and biographies.  History blogging can even be just general posts and reblogs of historical photos, notes on events, or book recommendations. One blog is dedicated to the history of labor while another is one person’s obsession with the Romanovs.  Articles on sites like Cracked inform millions of readers on horror stories from history to the ridiculous myths on the Wild West. The benefit of these types of blogs is the spread of history to a wider audience. A passing curiosity in something can be somebody else’s passion, and with blogs a person can discover that passion more in depth than they would in an average day.

Other types of blogs are more selective, and are run by academics that specialize in the field they blog about. The Junto is a blog run by graduate students and young faculty members that specialize in early American history. Another blog, Historiann, is written by Ann Little, an associate professor at Colorado State. These blogs have the credibility most enthusiast blogs lack and provide an academic forum for discussion.

There is a phenomenon experienced by many people where one gets lost in the pages of Wikipedia. You click on one page and get trapped in the endless links and connections. A similar thing can be said of history blogs. Blogs link to one another or outside sources.  One dedicated person can spread their knowledge to hundreds, or even thousands of people through history blogging by linking and sourcing their posts to other sites.

Despite the treasure trove of knowledge that can be shared, blogging, like most things, must not be blindly followed. Not every source can be reliable, and some can most certainly be biased. Blogs are used as a personal outlet for any number of things, and personal opinion can cloud the retelling of events. With their sometimes idiosyncratic nature, and the lack of peer review, blogging does not follow scholarly conventions . Sure, some blogs cite their sources and provide bibliographies, but most do not.  Is it surprising, given the informal nature of blogging? It can be assumed most bloggers do not set out to write a scholarly thesis on a topic with a full bibliography, but rather to write a brief summary on a figure or event, and discuss their opinions on what happened. There are blogs run by academics but the historical profession has yet to regard their writings as scholarship.

While the opinion laced through blogs can be seen as a fault, it is also its defining feature. What makes history blogging unique is the fact that anyone can do it, regardless of education and status. The National Archives blog surely is accredited enough to be accepted and cited, while another blog builds upon previous knowledge and personal research, whose credibility has the potential to be disputed. But it is these differences that add something more to the telling of history. No longer constrained by wealth, class, education, or any number of barriers that prevent one from becoming a scholar, anybody can reinterpret and present history. A person’s life defines how they see the world and history, and every blog can see history differently. No longer is history confined to books by scholars and historians alone, but to the web pages of enthusiasts and those with a passion or just interested in an idea.

History blogging is a new frontier. It not only is an area where individuals can interpret history their own way, but also a way for academic historians to reach the masses beyond documentaries, books, and classes. Literally anything can be discussed on a blog, it all just depends upon the writer. All blogging could be seen as the recording of history, with blogs on politics and music and celebrities, each being told as it happens, creating a seemingly personal archive of a person’s interests, tastes, and ideologies. The vast expanse of history provides a plethora of information to blog about, and given the number of people in the world and their unique experiences, history is told a new way every time.