Reconstructing History : The Emergence of a New Historical Society

by Fox-Genovese, Elizabeth; Lasch-Quinn, Elisabeth

• ISBN13: 9780415922784
• ISBN10: 041592278X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1999-07-01
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

In May 1997, a group of distinguished historians announced the formation of the Historical Society, an organization that sought to be free of the jargon-laden debates and political agendas that have come to characterize the profession. Eugene Genovese, Prsident of the Society, explained the commitment to form a new and genuinely diverse organization. "The Society extends from left to right and embraces people of every ideological and political tendency. The Society promotes frank debate in an atmosphere of civility, mutual respect, and common courtesy. All we require is that participants lay down plausible premises; reason logically; appeal to evidence; and prepare to exchange criticism with those who hold different points of view. Our goal: to promote an integrated history accessible to the public." From those beginnings, the Society has grown to include hundreds of members from every level of the profession, from Pulitzer-prize winning scholars to graduate students, across the ideological and politicalspectrum. In this first book from the Historical Society, several founding members explore central topics within the field; the enduring value of the practice of history; the sensitive use of historical records, sources, and archives; the value of common standards; and much more. An engaging and challenging work that will appeal to scholars, students, educators, and the many public readers who have become lost in the culture wars,Reconstructing Historyis sure to generate the kind of civil, reasoned debate that is a foundational goal of the Historical Society. Contributors include Walter A. McDougall, Marc Trachtenberg, Alan Charles Kors, Deborah A. Symonds, Leo P. Ribuffo, Bruce Kuklick, Elizabeth Fox-Genovese, Gertrude Himmelfarb, Edward Berkowitz, John Patrick Diggins, John Womack, Victor Davis Hanson, Miriam R. Levin, Martin J. Sklar, Eugene D. Genovese, Daniel C. Littlefield, Elisabeth Lasch-Quinn, Russell Jacoby, Rochelle Gurstein, Paul Rahe, Donald Kagan, Diane Ravitch, SeanWilentz, Louis Ferleger and Richard H. Steckel.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	xi	(2)
Introduction	xiii
PART I THE IMPERATIVE: THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY AS A CRITIQUE AND A NEW IDEAL	1	(34)
1 A New Departure	6	(3)
Eugene D. Genovese
2 The Past under Siege: A Historian Ponders the State of His Profession--and What to Do about It	9	(3)
Marc Trachtenberg
3 The Future of History in an Increasingly Unified World	12	(6)
Alan Charles Kors
4 Politics and Multiculturalism	18	(5)
Daniel C. Littlefield
5 Democracy in the Ivory Tower? Toward the Restoration of an Intellectual Community	23	(12)
Elisabeth Lasch-Quinn
PART II HISTORY AND THE CONTEMPORARY INTELLECTUAL MILIEU	35	(104)
6 History in a Postmodern World	40	(16)
Elizabeth Fox-Genovese
7 On the Obsolescence of "Puritanism" as an Epithet	56	(15)
Rochelle Gurstein
8 Postmodernist History	71	(23)
Gertrude Himmelfarb
9 A New Intellectual History?	94	(25)
Russell Jacoby
10 Henry Louis Gates, Sterling Brown, and the Professional Languages of African American Literary Criticism	119	(20)
Phillip M. Richards
PART III MEDITATIONS ON THE PRACTICE OF HISTORY	139	(98)
11 Confessions of an Accidental (or Perhaps Overdetermined) Historian	143	(21)
Leo P. Ribuffo
12 Living in the Scottish Record Office	164	(12)
Deborah A. Symonds
13 Writing the History of Practice: The Humanities and Baseball, with a Nod to Wrestling	176	(13)
Bruce Kuklick
14 The Dilemmas of the Contemporary Military Historian	189	(13)
Victor Davis Hanson
15 Aristotle and the Study of History: A Manifesto	202	(12)
Paul A. Rahe
16 What Is a Liberal Education?	214	(12)
Donald Kagan
17 The Death of Jane Addams	226	(11)
Edward Berkowitz
PART IV AN EDUCATIONAL MISSION: STANDARDS FOR THE TEACHING OF HISTORY	237	(62)
18 The Controversy over National History Standards	242	(11)
Diane Ravitch
19 The National History Standards	253	(23)
John Patrick Diggins
20 Clio Banished? Battles over History in the Schools	276	(6)
Sean Wilentz
21 Whose History? Whose Standards?	282	(17)
Walter A. McDougall
PART V HISTORIANS AT WORK	299	(72)
22 Capitalism and Socialism in the Emergence of Modern America: The Formative Era, 1890-1916	304	(18)
Martin J. Sklar
23 Center and Periphery in the History of Science	322	(25)
Miriam R. Levin
24 Work in the Moctezuma Brewery	347	(14)
John Womack
25 Faulkner's South: Is There Truth in Fiction?	361	(10)
Louis Ferleger
Richard H. Steckel
Contributors	371	(4)
Permissions	375