History and Abduction

I think this is a really neat paper, a Master's Thesis from Canada.  It shines light on two very different debates:  a debate within the field of history about the reality of abductions in Medieval England, and our current debate over the value of higher education.

On the question of abductions, the author has taken the tactic of examining fifty court cases with surviving documentation.  The result casts some of our assumptions in a new light.

Both the finding and the method casts some light on our discussions about the value of higher education.  Many have argued, on reasonably good grounds, that higher education no longer provides the same value to students that it has in the past.  Education past the bachelor's degree, and particularly in the humanities, is especially subject to this line of attack.

There is one thing, though, that all these extra history and literature majors are doing:  they enable us to go over the historical record with a fine-tooth comb to a degree never before possible.  The value to the students may be questioned, but the value to the rest of us -- as long as these programs continue to produce students who perform quality research -- is not always adequately considered.  We really benefit from these minute but significant adjustments in our understanding of the past.

(H/t:  Medievalists.)