Volume 13
Written By Elizabeth Boyle
ARTICLES
Paul K. Conkin, "Causation Revisited," History and Theory 13, no. 1 (1974), 1-20.
Historians cannot escape the obligation to give the best possible causal explanations but should recognize that they cannot be more rigorous than the subject matter permits. Rarely if ever can historians identify necessary and sufficient conditions of events, or even sufficient conditions; their aim is usually to seek out the necessary antecedents. Also, they inevitably deal with the teleology of ends and purposes, and with the variable symbolic meanings that constitute culture. But the converse of the limitations on causal claims is the ability to deal with questions of value, taste, and policy. Reductionism is logically appealing, but it leads to a non-historical form of knowledge which has achieved no success in understanding the activities of cultural man.
Paul Janssens, “Histoire Économique ou Économie Rétrospective?" History and Theory 13, no. 1 (1974), 21-38.
The New Economic History has revived epistemological awareness among historians, and calls into question the positivist evasion of the problems of subjectivity and constructive synthesis. Although historians have resisted science as well as scientism, they cannot give an adequate account of concrete reality without a global theory of society seen as a structured whole. But unlike the scientism of much social science, the historian must discriminate between chance, necessity, and free will; and this is not incompatible with scientific explanation. There remains a difference between economics and history. To the extent that economic models generalize contemporary patterns, the historian of another period must find models appropriate to that period i.e., become an economist of that period.
Lawrence S. Stepelevich, “August von Cieszkowski: From Theory to Praxis," History and Theory 13, no. 1 (1974), 39-52.
A neglected Young Hegelian, Cieszkowski published prolifically in economics and philosophy, but the work most influential on the Hegelians was his Prolegomena Zur Historiosophie (1838). Rejecting the conservative interpretation of Hegel, it denied that the end of history had been reached, celebrated the will as transcending thought, and anticipated a future in which being and thinking would find their syntheses in praxis. At once a critique of Hegel and a development of Hegelianism, his work is most notable for its millennial optimism.
David Gross, “The ‘New History’: A Note of Reappraisal," History and Theory 13, no. 1 (1974), 53-58.
The "' New History" of which James Harvey Robinson's book of that name (1912) was the manifesto, has itself become a proper object of historical inquiry, which needs to investigate the attitudes and premises which underlay it. One important assumption was that adaptation to the world as given is the only "reasonable" position. Robinson argued that the historian must select and construct a "usable past," but the past he constructed was designed to make industrial efficiency the overriding contemporary value and to reconcile the working population to the lot it "'must" accept. One can see by contrast with the "' New History" the possibility of a history which leads to re-thinking rather than accepting the givenness of the present.
REVIEW ESSAYS
Felix Gilbert on Historism. The Rise of a New Historical Outlook by Friedrich Meinecke, J. E. Anderson, History and Theory 13, no. 1 (1974), 59-64.
James P. Scanlan on Peter Lavrov and the Russian Revolutionary Movement by Philip Pomper, History and Theory 13, no. 1 (1974), 65-78.
John Higham on American History in American Thought. Christopher Columbus to Henry Adams by Bert James Loewenberg, History and Theory 13, no. 1 (1974), 78-83.
Moltke S. Gram on Truth and Historicity by Hans-Georg Gadamer, History and Theory 13, no. 1 (1974), 83-96.
ARTICLES
Stuart Clark, "Bacon's Henry VII: A Case-Study in the Science of Man," History and Theory 13, no. 2 (1974), 97-118.
Francis Bacon's History of Henry VII (1622) was an admired classic for almost three centuries, but in the twentieth century has come to be regarded as unreliable, as representing no contribution to source criticism, and as largely derivative from Edward Hall's Chronicle and Polydore Vergil's Anglica Historia. However, a comparison with these sources shows an entirely original psychological analysis of Henry VII and thereby supports the thesis that Bacon was carrying out a case-study according to his project for a "science of man" outlined in the Instauratio Magna. It was, in fact, the first scientifically-oriented biography in English, and thus differs from the tradition of "literary" history with which it otherwise shares a didactic purpose.
Arthur Lloyd Skop, "The Primacy of Domestic Politics: Eckart Kehr and the Intellectual Development of Charles A. Beard," History and Theory 13, no. 2 (1974), 119-131.
The unorthodox German historian Eckart Kehr published in 1931 his study of the politics of the building of the German navy; against the historicist view of the primacy of foreign policy, he argued the primacy of domestic politics. Largely rejected in Germany, Kehr's ideas strongly reinforced Charles Beard's growing belief that the United States should disengage itself from foreign economic and political relations as far as possible; Beard even made his own study of U.S. Navy politics, with conclusions like Kehr's. By the late 1930s, however, both Beard's preoccupation with historical relativism and his political activism led him to abandon the belief that external policies could be explained as resulting from domestic pressures.
CLASSICS IN THE PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY
Benjamin G. Kohl and Petrarch, "Petrarch's Prefaces to De Viris Illustribus," History and Theory 13, no. 2 (1974), 132-144.
Petrarch worked intermittently at his biographies of generals and statesmen over a period of forty years, with four different plans which reflect marked changes in his attitude toward antiquity. Originally intending to cover the period of republican Rome, in the 1350s he expanded his plan to cover all ages, beginning with Adam; in the 1370s he contracted it again to cover ancient secular heroes from Romulus to Trojan. The prefaces he wrote for the latter two plans, however, show no change in his views on the nature and utility of history; in this respect he was the first to sound all the themes of Renaissance historiography.
REVIEW ESSAYS
G. Kitson Clark on Macaulay. The Shaping of the Historian by John Clive, History and Theory 13, no. 2 (1974), 145-164.
William C. Lehmann on Adam Ferguson. Sociologia e filosofia politica by Pasquale Salvucci, History and Theory 13, no. 2 (1974), 165-181.
Astrid Witschi-Bernz on Historia Magistra Vitae. Untersuchungen zur humanistischen Geschichtstheorie des 14. bis 16. Jahrhunderts by Rüdiger Landfester and Die Entstehung der Modernen Jahrhundertrechnung. Ursprung und Ausbildung einer historiographischen Technik von Flacius bis Ranke by Johannes Burkhardt, History and Theory 13, no. 2 (1974), 181-189.
ARTICLES
George Huppert, "Divinatio et Eruditio: Thoughts on Foucault,'" History and Theory 13, no. 3 (1974), 191-207.
Michel Foucault, in Les Mots et les choses, claims to have developed an original, structural method for the study of intellectual history. Foucault believes this "archeological" technique can afford total understanding of the thought-of a particular period. However, when applied to sixteenth-century France, Foucault's method yields unsatisfactory results. Foucault asserts that prior to Descartes, all thinking was qualitative and magical, but in support of his thesis he can cite only marginal figures whose work had been thoroughly discredited by the learned humanists who constituted the mainstream of sixteenth-century French thought. When he does examine respected thinkers, he misinterprets their work.
Howard Adelman, "Rational Explanation Reconsidered: Case Studies and the Hempel-Dray Model,'" History and Theory 13, no. 3 (1974), 208-224.
Both William Dray's and Carl Hempel's models of rational explanation share a common paradigm of decision-making in history. They define a rational decision as a deliberative selection of a particular deed, according to a rationale and after a consideration of circumstances and possible consequences, in order to achieve some pre-determined objective. But Dray's and Hempel's own examples of historiographical practice reveal that decisions are generally concerned not with which deed to perform, but with whether or not to perform a certain deed. A paradigm of "opportune" decision-making would more correctly view a decision as a matching of a set of objectives with the probable consequences of the action in question, on the basis of the apparent opportuneness of circumstances.
S. N. Eisenstadt, "Studies of Modernization and Sociological Theory,'" History and Theory 13, no. 3 (1974), 225-252.
The sociological paradigm of modernization which began to disintegrate in the 1950s assumed that all societies develop according to a common pattern, and that traditional forms of organization are impediments to modernization, which was conceived as a continuous, covariant development of all the institutional spheres of a society toward some fixed endpoint. Criticism of this model has established that traditional and modem elements may coexist in a developing society, and that modernization is not a universal process characterizable in terms of Western European experience. This suggests that although modernization generates a set of common problems, it must be viewed as a process bound to historical conditions, and one which provokes different responses from different societies.
Sue Nichterlein, "Historicism and Historiography in Indonesia,'" History and Theory 13, no. 3 (1974), 253-272.
European colonial domination brought with it the Western historicist Weltanschauung, and as third-world nations regained their autonomy, they sought new political and historical paradigms to characterize their past and present. In Indonesia, the attempts of intellectuals to constitute a truly Indonesian historiography reveal the special features of historical consciousness there. Because of the pluralism of Indonesian culture, Indonesian historians have been concerned with defining a collective identity or nationalism, which has tended to politicize their historiography. But Indonesian historiography has embraced both academic and polemical orientations, and, utilizing a broad spectrum of coexisting viewpoints to build a new historical awareness, has very early recognized the legitimacy of subjectivity in history.
Allen L. Woll, "The Philosophy of History in Nineteenth-Century Chile: The Lastarria-Bello Controversy,'" History and Theory 13, no. 3 (1974), 273-290.
The emergence of independent Chile in the early nineteenth century fostered debate over the appropriate model and function for historical study within the new nation. One school of thought, represented by Andres Bello, shunned all foreign historiographical models as inapplicable, and held that since Chilean historical knowledge was incomplete, priority ought to be given to close study of the facts. José Lastarria argued that the historian must be a philosopher of history, searching out the meaning of historical facts in order to draw lessons for the present. In contrast to Bello, Lastarria believed the historical work should serve an active political function and offer judgments on both past and present.
REVIEW ESSAYS
William Dray on Critical Essays on the Philosophy of R. G. Collingwood by Michael Krausz, History and Theory 13, no. 3 (1974), 291-305.
William J. Bouwsma on Ribelli, Libertini e Ortodossi Nella Storiografia Barocca by Sergio Bertelli, History and Theory 13, no. 3 (1974), 305-314.
Cushing Strout on Frederick Jackson Turner. Historian, Scholar, Teacher by Ray Allen, History and Theory 13, no. 3 (1974), 315-325.
Mark Poster on Histoire et Dialectique de la Violence by Raymond Aron, History and Theory 13, no. 3 (1974), 326-335.
Stephen R. Graubard on Essays in Theory and History. An Approach to the Social Sciences by Melvin Richter History and Theory 13, no. 3 (1974), 335-342.
Bibliography of Works in the Philosophy of History, 1969-1972
“Bibliography of Works in the Philosophy of History - 1969-1972," History and Theory, Beiheft 13 (1974), 1-88.
“Index of Subjects," History and Theory, Beiheft 13 (1974), 89-92.
“Index of Names," History and Theory, Beiheft 13 (1974), 93-104.
“1966-1968: Addenda. A Supplement to Bibliography of Works in the Philosophy of History, 1966-1968," History and Theory, Beiheft 13 (1974), 105-106.
Cover image: Painting of Henry VII, Elizabeth of York, Henry VIII, and Jane Seymour, by Remigius van Leemput (1667)
