Following up on the earlier posts by Pete Boettke and Greg Ransom:
 
A sociology-of-economics explanation for the decline of HET would be more  
convincing if it seemed necessary. I don't think it is. It's not as if the  
status of History has been increasing relative to other academic disciplines in  
recent decades; "sinking like a stone" would be closer to the truth. The lack 
of  interest by undergraduates in History as a major or minor, and the  
ever-increasing difficulty graduate-trained historians have in securing an  academic 
post, suggests that something much bigger than squabbles within  economics is 
going on here. 
 
 
Jack Bladel