University of Chicago historian Kathleen Belew is teaching her students how different kinds of historians might respond to this age old question:
How would intellectual history, cultural history, social history etc answer (2)
— Kathleen Belew (@kathleen_belew) January 18, 2022
Social history wants to know not about the chicken that crossed the road, but the chickens that lived in the community that gave rise to the chicken that crossed the road such that we can better understand how the crossing was a collective action
— Kathleen Belew (@kathleen_belew) January 18, 2022
Intellectual history wants to know about the idea of the road, how we know it's a road, what the boundaries previous roads have looked like, and whether this one really was crossed at all
— Kathleen Belew (@kathleen_belew) January 18, 2022
Political history (olde school) offers a biography of what made this a Great Chicken
— Kathleen Belew (@kathleen_belew) January 18, 2022
Here are some the answers she has received:
Legal historians want to know what kinds of laws govern the crossing, how those who are denied the ability to cross pursue legal action, and whether the laws in place are representative of the norms chickens follow in crossing the road.
— Rachel Shelden (@rachelshelden) January 19, 2022
Historians of gender want to know why the neutral term “chicken” is usually culturally assumed to mean “hen,” and if so, whether interrogation of said road-crossing indicates larger assumptions about prescribed public behavior inherent in the rooster-normed culture
— Aaron Cowan (@aaronbcowan) January 19, 2022
Oral history asks those who remember observing the chicken crossing the road & examines the factors which led to the creation of that narrative, it’s significance to the individual and its wider cultural meaning – in doing so, they learn there was never even a road to begin with!
— kristin hay 🔮✨ (@kristinwh0) January 19, 2022
Historians of childhood will want to the importance of road crossing as an element of the socialisation of chicks, whether road crossing marked a transition in the chick’s life course, and if the chicken had agency in determining when and how to cross the road
— ChristinaDeBellaigue (@cadebellaigue) January 19, 2022
Transnational history starts from the acknowledgement that chickens are constantly crossing these roads; it focuses on the nature of this traffic and the continuities, interactions, influences, and intersections of movement back and forth.
— Professor KPA (@kpanyc) January 18, 2022
Religious historians (old school) would ask what the chicken believed about crossing the road, while historians of religion (old school) would ask what this reveals about all chicken-crossing stories.
— Thomas A. Carlson (@MedievalMidEast) January 18, 2022
Newer historians of religion might ask what shaped the road-crossing ritual.
Music and sound scholars would like to map the soundscape of that crossing, the rhythm of those chicken legs and to know which soulful tune did that chicken shake their tale feather!
— Ellie Armon Azoulay, PhD (@Ellie_AA87) January 19, 2022
The Whig Interpretation of History is interested in how centuries of progress against tyranny made this glorious road-crossing possible.
— Dave Kamper 🌹 (@dskamper) January 18, 2022
Historic preservationists wants to know the integrity of the streetscape that’s seen while the chicken crosses the road.
— Renata 🍪 (@BitterBarbie420) January 18, 2022
Talking Heads historian: Where does that highway go to? Am I right? Am I wrong? My God, what have I done!
— Rufus T. Firefly (@PresFirefly) January 19, 2022
Providential historians: Did the chicken cross under its own free will or was the crossing predestined. 🙂
— John Fea (@JohnFea1) January 19, 2022
Historians of education want to know who taught that chicken, what they taught them, and what civic/economic value was attached to road crossing. They want to know what the chicken thought of the lesson, or if they cut school, but records are few… #histed
— Ansley Erickson (@ATErickson) January 19, 2022
Public historians would synthesis the scholarship, uncover new primary sources (who knew chicken’s kept diaries?), acquire historical images of the crossing & work with a graphic artist to create a wayside interpretive sign. Er, make that two signs, one on each side of the road.
— dean krimmel (@deankrimmel) January 18, 2022
Me, a generalist: crossing roads is complicated and done in various ways over long periods of time. Chickens too have differing motivations for and methods of crossing roads. Roads themselves are patriarchal.
— Rebecca Fachner (@rebecca_fachner) January 19, 2022
Fake history focuses on the chicken's emails and the fox's obvious election victory, all contained in Bill O'Reilly's book, "Killing the Chicken," with forewords by Clay Clark and Col. Sanders.
— Mark Cheathem ¯_(ツ)_/¯ (@markcheathem) January 19, 2022
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