Eric Muller at Is That Legal? has run into the effects of cutbacks at the National Archives. Eric was disappointed to find that, in the words of the Archives staff he spoke to, they "really have no one" to replace a senior archivist who was an expert in Justice Department records.
The broader impact of cutbacks at the archives was addressed last spring in a post on this blog: Losing American History at the Archives, linking to a NYT op-ed on the topic. While the National Archives now appears to have restored its regular hours, the enduring problem, which Eric encountered, is the loss of experienced senior staff. This does not just make research more difficult and time-consuming. It will mean that some nuggets of history go unfound by researchers, who rely on assistance from those who know the records the best. To repeat the point I made last spring: Undermining the role of the archivist in the production of American history writing will undermine the way the story of American history itself is told.
