Jim Grossman, exiting after 15 years as executive director of the American Historical Association, discusses his efforts to multiply historians’ routes to tenure, The 1619 Project’s impact on history debates and why policymakers need historians. A chapter of history is closing: Jim Grossman is retiring after 15 years as executive director of the American Historical Association, a group of more than 10,400 members. He began leading the scholarly organization after two decades at Chicago’s independent Newberry Library, where he was vice president for research and education. His own scholarly work focused on American urban history, especially of Chicago, and the Great Migration of African Americans.
