Thoughts on Scholarship from a Non-Scholar

I'm of the opinion that anyone in America can become an expert--and successful--in whatever field (with the exception of brain surgery and rocket science) they choose by reading and doing, reading and doing, reading and doing, reading and doing, and more reading. (I won't take the time here to cite the scores of examples to prove this. Most readers would already know them anyway.)

And by doing this, one can accomplish much--without an advanced degree, or any degree for that matter. Again, scores of examples could be cited. Passion, desire, a little talent, average intelligence, and hard work will trump a college degree every time. One example I will cite, since it is directly relevant to this discussion, is Shelby Foote. Foote dropped out of the University of North Carolina after two years, never completing his degree, though he was awarded an honorary doctorate from Loyola University. Foote proved that being self-taught by becoming a voracious reader is very possible. As one online article noted of Foote's college experience:

"He found the university setting stuffy and uncompromisingly conformist. With the exception of English and history classes, Foote rarely attended classes, spending most of his time sequestered away in the school’s library, a nine-story repository that seemed like some brave new world for the starry-eyed Foote."

Consider the following:

"I've always been a poor student if the subject doesn't interest me much. I took French, German and Spanish, and did miserably in all three of them because I didn't enjoy memorizing vocabularies and things like that. If I got interested in a thing, I would devote my time to it and neglect the others, so that I had some bad grades alongside some good grades, and none of them mattered to me. I never cared what kind of grade I got." ~ Shelby Foote

"I was never a trained historian, three by five cards and all that business. So that I would remember--I would be writing about something like the third day at Gettysburg, and it was something I couldn't remember the exact quote of, and I of course wanted to look it up and get it accurate, but I couldn't remember except that it was in a book with a red binding, and it was on the left-hand side on the top third of the page. So I would go to the shelf and pull down every red-bound book and look through it, and I would come across things like -- I'd say, "My God, I never noticed that before," and it had nothing to do with Gettysburg or anything else, but it would go into the book later in some other way." ~ Shelby Foote

(See full interview by clicking here.)

"Foote subsequently wrote a comprehensive three volume, 3000-page history of the American Civil War, together entitled The Civil War: A Narrative, which is considered by many to be a classic. The individual volumes include Fort Sumter to Perryville (1958), Fredericksburg to Meridian (1963), and Red River to Appomattox (1974). "

In addition to Foote's classic narrative on the Civil War, he also wrote a number of successful works of fiction. Of course, Foote also played a prominent role in Ken Burns's PBS special on the war. After its airing, Foote achieved near "rock star" status. Not bad for a "non-academic."

And this observation by someone who knew Foote:

"He was the kind of academician who could weave a Civil War story into a discussion about fried green tomatoes -- and do so without an ounce of presumption or arrogance. He was a treasure."
~ C. Vincett Shortt

Certainly, a PhD in the field of history is an accomplishment to be noted. But it is not something which is necessary to research and write a good book. Others ultimately determine the quality and worthiness of one's work anway, not the letters behind your name. Unfortunately, the "presumption of arrogance" is common baggage in much of academia who look down their noses at anyone who doesn't have a college degree. We would all do well to remember the words of Mark Twain who, like Foote, dropped out of the University of South Carolina after two years:

"Education: that which reveals to the wise, and conceals from the stupid, the vast limits of their knowledge."