The Many-Sided Franklin Ford and the History of a Post-Discipline

Abstract Building on recent works emphasizing the “post-disciplinary” status of communication research, this article explores implications thesis for history studies. While a portion existing historiography fits disciplinary framework, post-disciplinary raises theoretical, methodological, and empirical challenges. In order to meet those challenges, we argue that historical research should also be directed toward intellectual institutional projects predated or transcended institutionalization as discipline. To end, revisit contribution American journalist Franklin Ford (1849–1918) an entry point into moment when study was considered intellectually, socially, institutionally relevant—for reasons differ from post-World War II Based archival our approach emphasizes how Ford’s project diverges conventional histories.