Written by Ailsa Fraser

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Writing is an intrinsic part of a history degree, but it’s not an aspect much focused on. No one sits down to teach you how to write a history essay—at least, not at any British universities—and you’re meant to figure it out from feedback on what you got wrong. The enormous amount of independent study British universities expect of you, in both reading and writing, is reflected in the fact traditionally one would say they were “reading” history, rather than studying it. But this craft is exactly the focus of the podcast Drafting the Past. While the podcast by no means teaches it to you directly, the wide range of methods, approaches, and ideas about the process of writing it discusses definitely helped me with my undergraduate dissertation and beyond. The podcast’s blunt and affectionate tagline— “friends don’t let friends write boring history”—rings true. It doesn’t just focus on the neglected craft of writing; it’s honest about it too. 

Drafting the Past sees its host, Kate Carpenter, interview various historians about their research and writing habits. The episodes range in length from half an hour to an hour but tend to be about fifty minutes long. Carpenter does not have a rigid structure to each episode except that she always asks a guest to read a passage of their own work, chosen by her, for the listener to appreciate. Her usual questions concern her guests’ writing habits: Where do you write? How do you balance your time? How do you edit? Do you have a writing group? Are there any writers you look up to? What’s the best piece of writing advice you’ve ever received? The discussion develops organically from there, and we get to learn the intimate, useful minutiae of how historians approach their craft—and the fact that even for seasoned professionals, writing is difficult. Most of the podcast tends to be the guest speaking, with Carpenter chiming in to tease out points or respond to particular ideas, so the guests get their chance to discuss their work unfettered.  

Carpenter’s strength as a podcast host is exactly this, in how the podcast reflects her own interests while remaining a wonderful mix of different historians’ areas and approaches. As a doctoral candidate at Princeton University in the History of Science, her own research focuses on twentieth-century storm chasers and tornado science. These interests are reflected in her guests—the podcast boasts plenty of historians of science and the environment, which is what first appealed to me when listening. But little of Carpenter’s own study comes through in the episodes (most of the information here comes from the Drafting the Past website!). The podcast’s remit is much broader, hosting historians of a range of subjects and locations. As Carpenter is based in the United States, most of her guests are too, so there is much more American history than I as a British listener am used to, but still the podcast shows a delightful mix of local and global histories. And even if an episode hosts a guest whose research interests don’t align with yours at all, the podcast’s focus on writing as a craft, rather than the historical context we’re used to obsessing over, means that sometimes the episode will only touch on the history itself briefly. The focus is on the search, not the discovery.  

Because of this, the podcast is most revealing about the reality of historians’ work. Guest after guest, in response to being asked about how they like to write, answers something along the lines of, “Wherever I can.” At the end of the day, juggling the teaching responsibilities of their role, their day job if they don’t work in academia, and raising their families puts time restraints on them that mean all they can do is sit down and work. Likewise, they’ll move from position to position, some less ideal than others, and simply have to make do. Some love working in academia; some are much more jaded about it; and many of her guests don’t work in academia at all. Carpenter herself was first trained as a journalist, and my favourite episode is where she interviews Lyndsie Bourgon, a journalist and oral historian who studied the same environmental history course I’m on now. Drafting the Past loves historians in the broadest sense of the word and focuses on how we write—in every context, within and without the ivory tower, and amidst the chaos of everyday life too. 

The value of Drafting the Past is in this honesty. In focusing on an otherwise neglected area, it gets to be creative and individual in how historians find what tactics work for them. I’ve adapted my own approach to writing thanks to certain pieces of advice! For students who aren’t interested in the detailed lives of academics and their craft, it won’t be an engaging listen. But for those who are interested in who historians are, what they do, and how they do it, it’s illuminating. Carpenter and her guests’ passion shines through in every episode, and each guest has their own approach to their craft, whether they focus on data and argument, or on telling a beautiful story. For the interested student, Drafting the Past is full of writing advice that leads by example: for researching, for organising your notes, for drafting, for editing. And, most importantly, for making sure that history is never boring.