Everyman His Own Historian Author(s): Carl Becker Reviewed work(s): Source: The American Historical Review, Vol.

37, No. 2 (Jan., 1932), pp. 221-236 Published by: Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Historical Association Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1838208 . Accessed: 23/10/2012 08:14
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Folume XXXVII]

January,1932

[Number 2

EVERYMAN HIS OWN HISTORIAN'

1.

to itslowest terms. Whether I couldstill that perform operation is uncertain; butthediscipline involved in early had itsuses, training in order sinceit taught me that to understand theessential nature of and irrelevant it of all superficial it is well to strip anything accretions-inshort, it to itslowest to reduce terms.Thatoperation I now with someapprehension to perform and all due apologies, venture, on thesubject of history. I ought first of all to explain thatwhenI use theterm I history meanknowledge ofhistory. No doubt all pasttime there throughout actually occurred a series of events whether we knowwhatit which, was or not,constitutes in someultimate sense. Nevertheless, history muchthegreater partof theseevents we can knownothing about, noteventhat they occurred; many ofthem we can knowonlyimperfectly; and eventhefewevents thatwe think we knowforsurewe can never be absolutely certain of,sincewe can neverrevive them, never observe or testthemdirectly. The event itself once occurred, butas an actual event it hasdisappeared; so that in dealing with it the onlyobjective reality we can observe or testis somematerial trace whichthe eventhas left-usually a written document.Withthese traces of vanished events, these documents, we must be content since are all we have; from they themwe infer whattheeventwas,we affirm that it is a fact thattheevent was so and so. We do notsay "Lincoln is assassinated"; we say"it is a fact that Lincoln was assassinated". The event was,butis no longer; it is onlytheaffirmed fact abouttheevent that is,that persists, and willpersist until we discover
1 Presidential Address delivered before theAmerican Historical Association at Minneapolis,December29, 1931.
221

ONCE upona time, howto reduce a fraction long long ago,I learned

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thatour affirmation is wrong or inadequate.Let us thenadmit that there aretwohistories: thatonceoccurred; theactualseries of events and theidealseries The first that and holdin memory. we affirm is absolute and unchanged-it was whatit was whatever we do or say aboutit; the secondis relative, alwayschanging in response to the or refinement increase ofknowledge. The twoseries more correspond or less, it is ouraim to makethecorrespondence as exact as possible; buttheactualseries of events forus onlyin terms exists of theideal series which we affirm andholdin memory. Thisis whyI am forced to identify history withknowledge of history. For all practical purfor poseshistory us for is, and thetime whatwe knowit tobe. being, It is history in thissense thatI wishto reduce to itslowest terms. In order to do thatI needa very simple definition. I oncereadthat is theknowledge of events "History thathaveoccurred in thepast". That is a simple definition, butnotsimple enough. It contains three words that require examination. The first is knowledge. Knowledge is a formidable word. I always think ofknowledge as something that is stored up in theEncyclopadia Britannica ortheSummaTheologica; something difficult to acquire, something at all events thatI havenot. a definition Resenting that denies me thetitle of historian, I therefore ask whatis mostessential to knowledge. Well,memory, I should think (and I meanmemory in thebroadsense, thememory ofevents inferred as wellas thememory of events observed); other things are necessary too, butmemory is fundamental: without memory noknowledge. So our definition becomes, "History is thememory of events haveoccurred that in thepast". Butevents-the wordcarries an implication of something grand, like the taking of the Bastille or the Spanish-American War. An occurrence neednotbe spectacular to be an event. If I drive a motor car downthecrooked streets of Ithaca, that is an event-something done;ifthetraffic copbawlsmeout,that is an event-something said; if I have evil thoughts of him forso is that an event-something thought. In truth anything done, doing,0 rudimentary way,and sincethepsychologists tellus thatwe can not think without or at leastnot without speaking, havinganticipatory vibrations in the larynx, we maywell combine thought events and under oneterm; and so ourdefinition events speech becomes, "History of things said and donein thepast". Butthepastis thememory and unnecessary: becauise thewordis bothmisleading the misleading,
said, or thought is an event,important or not as may turnout. But since we do not ordinarily speak withoutthinking, at least in some

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seems to imply past, usedin connection thedistant withhistory, past, becauseafter as if history we wereborn;unnecessary, ceasedbefore in thepastas soonas it is said all everything said or doneis already andourdefinition ordone. Therefore I willomit that word, becomes, saidand done". Thisis a definition "History is thememory ofthings to its lowest and yetincludes thatreduces history terms, everything thatis essential whatit really to understanding is. ofthings Iftheessence ofhistory is thememory saidanddone, then normal knowssome it is obvious thatevery Mr. Everyman, person, we do whatwe canto conceal thisinvidious history. Of course truth. we say thatso and so knowsno a professional Assuming manner, history, whenwe meanno morethanthathe failed to pass theexsetfor a higher and simple-minded aminations degree; underpersons, takenin by academic classifications and others, of knowlgraduates knowno history because takena edge,think they theyhave never or havenever readGibbon's Declineand in history in college, course Fall of theRomanEmpire. No doubttheacademic convention has that must be stripped itsuses, butit is oneofthesuperficial accretions off if we wouldunderstand reduced to itslowest history terms.Mr. as well as you and I, remembers Everyman, things said and done, and must do so at every moment. waking Suppose Mr.Everyman to have awakened thismorning unableto remember said or anything done. He would be a lost soulindeed.Thishashappened, this sudden loss-of all historical knowledge.But normally it does not happen. thememory Normally of Mr. Everyman, whenhe awakens in the morning, reaches outinto thecountry ofthepastandofdistant places and instantaneously recreates his little worldof endeavor, pullstoas itwere gether things saidanddonein hisyesterdays, andco6rdinates them with hispresent perceptions and with things tobe saidand done in histo-morrows. Without this historical knowledge, this memory of saidand done, things his to-day wouldbe aimless and histo-morrow without significance. Sincewe are concerned withhistory in its lowest we will terms, suppose that Mr. Everyman is nota professor of history, butjustan ordinary citizen without excess knowledge. Not having a lecture to prepare, hismemory ofthings saidand done, whenhe awakened this morning, prestimably did notdragintoconsciousness anyevents connected withtheLimanvon Sanders mission or thePseudo-Isidorian Decretals; itpresumably dragged intoconsciousness an image ofthings said and (loneyesterday in theoffice, thehiglhly significant factthat

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General Motorshad droppedthreepoints,a conference arrangedfor ten o'clock in the morning, a promise to play nine holes at four-thirty in the afternoon, and otherhistorical eventsof similarimport. Mr. Everyman knows more historythan this, but at the moment of of thingssaid and done, history awakeningthisis sufficient: memory at seven-thirty in the morning, in its verylowestterms, functioning, oriented Mr. Everymanin his littleworldof endeavor. has effectively Yet not quite effectively afterall perhaps;forunaided memory is and it mayhappenthatMr. Everyman, notoriously fickle; as he drinks his coffee, is uneasilyaware of something said or done that he fails now to recall. A commonenough occurrence, as we all know to our sorrow-thisremembering, but onlythatthere notthe historical event, was an eventwhich we oughtto remember but can not. This is Mr. a bitof history Everyman's difficulty, lies dead and inertin thesources, to do for unable Mr. Everyman any work because his memory refuses to bringit alive in consciousness.What thendoes Mr. Everyman do? He does what any historian would do: he does a bit of historical researchin the sources. From his littlePrivateRecord Office(I mean his vestpocket) he takes a book in MS., volume XXXV. it may be, and turnsto page 23, and therehe reads: "December29, pay Smith's coal bill,20 tons,$1017.20." Instantaneously a seriesof historical events comes to life in Mr. Everyman's mind. He has an image of himself orderingtwentytons of coal from Smith last summer,of Smith's wagonsdrivingup to his house,and of theprecious coal slidingdustily throughthe cellar window. Historicalevents,these are, not so imas the forging portant of the IsidorianDecretals, but stillimportant to Mr. Everyman:historical eventswhichhe was not present to observe, but which,by an artificial extension of memory, he can forma clear picture of, becausehe has done a littleoriginalresearch in the manuscripts preserved in his PrivateRecord Office. The picture Mr. Everyman forms of Smith'swagonsdelivering the coal at his house is a picture of thingssaid and done in the past. But it does notstandalone,it is nota pure antiquarian image to be enjoyed for its own sake; on the contrary, it is associatedwith a pictureof thingsto be said and done in the future;so thatthroughout the day Mr. Everymanintermittently holds in mind,together with a picture of Smith'scoal wagons,a pictureof himself going at fouro'clock in the afternoon to Smith'soffice in orderto pay his bill. At fouro'clock Mr. Everymanis accordingly at Smith'soffice. "I wish to pay that coal bill",he says. Smithlooks dubiousand disappointed, takesdown

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a ledger (or a filing case),doesa bitoforiginal research in hisPrivate Record Office, and announces: "You don'towe me anymoney, Mr. Everynman. You ordered thecoal hereall right, havethe butI didn't kindyou wanted, and so turned theorderoverto Brown. It was Brown delivered your coal: he'sthemanyouowe." Whereupon Mr. Everyman goes to Brown's and Browntakesdowna ledger, office; which does a bit of original RecordOffice, in his Private research happily confirms the researches of Smith;and Mr. Everyman pays theCountry his bill,and in theevening, from after returning Club, sure makes a further collection search in another ofdocuments, where, fortwenty he finds a billfrom enough, tons Brown, properly drawn,
of stove coal, $10I7.20. The researchis now completed. Since his mind restssatisfied, Mr. Everymanhas found the explanation of the seriesof eventsthatconcerned him. Mr. Everyman would be astonished to learnthathe is an historian, yetit is obvious,isn'tit,thathe has performed all the essential operationsinvolvedin historical research. Need:ng or wantingto do something(which happenedto be, not to delivera lecture or writea book, but to pay a bill; and thisis whatmisleadshim and us as to what he is really doing), the firststep was to recall thingssaid and done. Unaided memoryprovinginadequate,a further step was essentialthe examination of certaindocuments in orderto discover the necessarybut as yetunknownfacts. Unhappilythe'documents werefound to give conflicting so thata critical of the texts had reports, comparison to be instituted in orderto eliminate error. All thishavingbeen satisfactorily accomplished, Mr. Everyman is readyforthefinaloperationthe formation in his mind,by an artificial extension of memory, of a a definitive picture, picture let us hope,of a selected seriesof historical events-of himself orderingcoal fromSmith,of Smith turningthe orderover to Brown,and of Brown delivering the coal at his house. In thelightof thispicture Mr. Everyman could,and did, pay his bill. If Mr. Everymanhad undertaken these researches in orderto write a book insteadof to pay a bill,no one would thinkof denying thathe was an historian. II. I have triedto reducehistory to its lowestterms, first by defining it as the memory of thingssaid and done,secondby showingconcretely how thememory of things said and done is essential to theperformance of thesimplest actsof dailylife. I wish now to no:e themoregeneral

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of affairs Mr. activities. In therealm ofMr.Everyman's implications consciousness realm of bill; in the paying his coal hasbeen Everyman manaloneto enables thing which he hasbeendoing fundamental that andenricha history: he hasbeenreenforcing speaking, have, properly in a world he may live the end that to perceptions inghisimmediate within and satisfying thanis to be found morespacious of semblance confines ofthefleeting present moment. thenarrow We areapt to think of thepastas dead,thefuture as nonexistent, counwiseor disillusioned aloneas real;and prematurely thepresent flame" in gemlike us to burnalways with"a hard, haveurged selors the moments as they pass, and to "the to highest quality order give sake". This no doubtis whattheglowforthosemoments' simply awarethat wormdoes;but I think thatman,who aloneis properly reason makeno gooduse can for that very passes, thepresent moment speaking, the foritsown sake. Strictly ofthepresent moment simply for thanan infinitesimal doesn't exist us,or is at bestno more present we we can noteit as present. Nevertheless, in time, gonebefore point onebyrobbing andso we create thepast, byholdhavea present; must all belong events and pretending thatthey ing on to themostrecent I raise thetotal myarm, example, toourimmediate If,for perceptions. the are pastbefore thefirst of which event of occurrences is a series movement it as a single lasthavetakenplace; and yetyouperceive events of successive in one present instant.This telescoping executed call the 'specious instant present'.Doubtintoa single philosophers narrow limits rather tothespecious but wouldassign present; lessthey use ofit,and saythatwe can extend the makea free I willwillfully we do so: we as we like. In common as much speech present specious the'present the'present generation'. year', hour', speakofthe'present butmanhasthis havea specious creatures all living present; Perhaps and theuniverse, he is aware ofhimself that as Pascalsays, superiority, of somemeasure and with at arm's holdhimself can as itwere length and his fellows watchhimself in the world functioning objectivity manalone a brief years. Of all thecreatures, spanof allotted during thatmaybe deliberately and purposefully enhas a specious present and enriched. and diversified larged be enlarged and thespecious to which The extent maythus present ofmemtheartificial extension willdepend enriched uponknowledge, saidand donein thepastanddistant thememory ofthings places. ory, directed by But notuponknowledge uponknowledge alone; rather inof is an unstable The pattern thought, present specious purpose.

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cessantly in response to our immediate changing and the perceptions purposes thatarisetherefrom. At anygivenmoment eachone of us (professional no less thanMr. Everyman) historian weavesintothis unstable suchactual memories pattern as maybe necessary or artificial toorient us in ourlittle world ofendeavor. Butto be oriented in our little world ofendeavor we must be prepared forwhat is coming to us (thepayment ofa coal bill,thedelivery of a presidential the address, establishment of a League of Nations, or whatever); and to be prepared for what is coming to us itis necessary, notonly to recall certain pastevents, butto anticipate (noteI do notsaypredict) thefuture. Thusfrom thespecious which includes more present, or lessof always thepast, thefuture refuses to be excluded; and themoreof thepast we dragintothespecious themore an hypothetical, present, patterned future is likely tocrowd into italso. Which comes first, which is cause and whicheffect, whether our memories construct a pattern of past events at thebehest of our desires and hopes, or whether our desires and hopesspring from a pattern of pastevents imposed uponus by experience and knowledge, I shallnotattempt to say. WhatI suspect is thatmemory of past and anticipation of future events worktogether, go handin handas it werein a friendly way,without disputing overpriority and leadership. At all events they go together, so that in a very realsense it is impossible to divorce history from life:Mr. Everyman can notdo what heneeds ordesires todo without recalling past events; he cannotrecall pastevents without in somesubtle fashion relating themto whathe needsor desires to do. This is the natural function of history, of history reduced toitslowest terms, ofhistory conceived as thememory of things said and done:memory of things said and done (whether in ourimmediate yesterdays or in thelongpastofmankind), running handin hand withthe anticipation of things to be said and done, enables us,eachto theextent ofhisknowledge andimagination, to be intelligent, to pushback thenarrow confines of thefleeting present moment so thatwhatwe are doingmaybe judgedin the lightof whatwe havedoneand whatwe hopeto do. In thissense all living history, as Crocesays, is contemporaneous: in so faras we think the past(and otherwise thepast,however fully related in documents, is to us) it becomes nothing an integral and living partof our present world of semblance. It must then be obvious that living history, theidealseries ofevents that we affirm and holdin memory, since it is so intimately associated

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withwhatwe are doingand withwhatwe hopeto do, can notbe thesamefor precisely all atanygiven orthesamefor onegeneratime, tionas foranother.History to a in thissensecan notbe reduced verifiable setof statistics of universally valid or formulated in terms mathematical formulas. It is rather an imaginative creation, a perwhicheach one of us, Mr. Everyman, sonalpossession fashions out ofhisindividual tohispractical experience, or emotional adapts needs, andadorns as wellas may be tosuithisasthetic tastes. In thus creating his own history, there limits whichMr. Everyman are,nevertheless, maynotoverstep without are setby incurring penalties.The limits hisfellows.If Mr. Everyman livedquitealonein an unconditioned he wouldbe free to affirm world and holdin memory anyidealseries thatstruck hisfancy, of events and thuscreate a world of semblance withtheheart's desire.Unfortunately, quitein accord Mr.Everyman hasto livein a world of Browns and Smiths; a sad experience, which himtheexpediency has taught of recalling certain events withmuch In all theimmediately exactness. practical affairs of lifeMr. Everymanis a goodhistorian, as expert, in conducting theresearches necesforpaying his coalbill,as needbe. His expertness sary comes partly fromlong practice, but chiefly fromthe circumstance thathis researches areprescribed andguided byvery definite andpractical objects himintimately. whichconcern The problem of whatdocuments to whatfacts to select, consult, troubles Mr.Everyman notat all. Since a book on "Some Aspects he is not writing of the Coal Industry it does notoccurto him to collect Objectively Considered", all the facts and letthem speakforthemselves. Wishing merely to payhis coalbill, he selects as maybe relevant; onlysuchfacts and notwishing to pay it twice, he is sufficiently aware,without everhavingread Bernheim's that facts Lehrbuch, therelevant must be clearly established of independent bythetestimony witnesses notself-deceived. He does or needto know, thathispersonal notknow, interest in theperformbias whichwill prevent ance is a disturbing himfrom the learning or arriving at ultimate causes. Mr. Everyman wholetruth does not or to arrive at ultimate causes. He wish to learnthe wholetruth to adjusthimto payhis coal bill. That is to say,he wishes wishes and on thatlow pragmatic selfto a practical situation, levelhe is a because he is notdisinterested: good historian he willsolve precisely if he doessolvethem, his problems, of his intelligence by virtue and of hisindifference. notby virtue Mr. Everyman does notlivebybreadalone;and on Nevertheless,

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occasions all proper hismemory ofthings saidand done, easily enlargthenarrow circle ofdailyaffairs, inghisspecious present beyond will, in mere must for theintolerable dullness inevitably, compensation and of the fleeting vexation fashion forhim a more present moment, world thanthat spacious oftheimmediately He canreadily practical. recallthedaysof his youth, theplaceshe has livedin,theventures he has made,theadventures he has had-all thecrowded events of a lifetime; of personally and beyond and around thiscentral pattern therewill be embroidered a moredimlyseen experienced events, ofartificial memories pattern ofthings tohavebeen memories, reputed which he hasnotknown, in distant saidand donein pasttimes places which he hasnotseen. Thisouter ofremembered events pattern that thecentral encloses and completes of his personal pattern experience, Mr.Everyman has woven, he couldnottellyouhow,outofthemost diverse threads ofinformation, casualway, from picked up in themost the most unrelated sources-from things learned at home andin school, from knowledge gainedin business or profession, from newspapers glancedat, from books(yes,evenhistory books) reador heardof, fromremembered scrapsof newsreels or educational filmsor ex cathedra utterances of presidents and kings, from fifteen-minute discourses on thehistory ofcivilization broadcast bythecourtesy (it may be) ofPepsodent, theBulovaWatchCompany, or theShepard Stores in Boston.Dailyand hourly, from a thousand unnoted sources, there is lodged in Mr.Everyman's minda massofunrelated and related information and misinformation, of impressions and images, out of which he somehow manages, undeliberately forthemost part, to fashion a history, a patterned picture ofremembered things saidand done in pasttimes and distant places. It is notpossible, it is notessential, thatthispicture should be complete or completely true: it is essential that itshould be useful to Mr.Everyman; andthat it maybe useful to him he will hold in memory, of all the things he might hold in' memory, those things onlywhich canbe related with somereasonable of relevance degree and harmony to hisidea of himself and of what he is doingin theworldand whathe hopesto do. In constructing thismoreremote and far-flung pattern of rememberedthings, Mr. Everyman workswithsomething of thefreedom ofa creative artist; thehistory which he imaginatively recreates as an artificial extension of his personal experience will inevitably be an engagingr blend offact and fancy, a mythical adaptation ofthat which actually happened.In partit willbe true, in partfalse;as a whole
AM. HIST. REV., VOL. XXXVII.-

17

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perhaps neither truenorfalse, form butonlythemost of convenient error.Not thatMr. Everyman to deceive himself or intends wishes or others. Mr. Everyman has a wholesome respect forcold,hard facts, never suspecting how malleable they are,howeasyit is to coax and cajolethem;but he necessarily takesthefacts as they cometo him,and is enamored of those thatseembestsuited to his interests or promise most in thewayofemotional satisfaction. The exact truth of remembered events he has in any case no time, and no need,to curiously question ormeticulously verify. No doubt he can,ifhe be an call up an imageofthesigning oftheDeclaration of IndeAmerican, pendence in 1776 as readily as he can callup an image ofSmith's coal wagons creaking up thehilllastsummer. He suspects theone image no morethantheother; butthesigning of theDeclaration, touching not his practical interests, calls forno careful historical research on his part. He mayperhaps, without knowing affirm and hold why, in memory thattheDeclaration was signed by themembers -ofthe Continental Congress on thefourth ofJuly.It is a vivid andsufficient imagewhich Mr.Everyman mayholdto theendof hisdayswithout incurring penalties.Neither Brownnor Smithhas any interest in setting himright; norwill anycourt eversendhima summons for failing to recall that theDeclaration, "being engrossed and compared at thetable, was signed by themembers" on thesecond of August. As an actualevent, thesigning of theDeclaration was whatit was; as a remembered event it willbe,for Mr.Everyman, whatMr.Everymancontrives to makeit: willhaveforhimsignificance and magic,
muchor little well or ill intohis littleworldof or none at all, as it fits emotional interests and aspirations and comforts.

III. Whatthenof us,historians Whathavewe to do by profession? tobelieve, or he with I venture with Mr. Everyman, us? More, than too. Eachof us we areapttothink.Foreachofus is Mr.Everyman of timeand place;and foreachof us,no is subject to thelimitations of and.Smiths of the world, the pattern less thanforthe Browns saidand donewillbe woven, theprocess remembered things safeguard at thebehest of circumstance and purpose. howwe may, eachofus is Mr.Everyman, eachis someTrueit is that although Mr. Everyman, more thanhisown historian. thing beingbutan inis under no bondto remember whatis irrelevant to formal historian,
his personalaffairs.But we are historians by profession.Our profes-

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successionof eventsin the life of man, and fromthe successionof eventsthus presented to derivea satisfactory meaning. The history writtenby historians, like the history informally fashionedby Mr. is thusa convenient Everyman, blendof truth and fancy, of what we commonly distinguish as 'fact'and 'interpretation'. In primitive times, when tradition is orally transmitted, bards and story-tellers frankly or improvise embroider the factsto heighten the dramaticimportof the story. With theuse of written records, history, gradually differen-

boundup withthe practical sion,less intimately is to be activities, with ofevents concerned theidealseries that directly is onlyofcasual to others; it is our business or occasional in lifeto be ever import withthatfar-flung preoccupied of artificial memories pattern that encloses the central and completes of individual pattern experience. We are Mr. Everybody's as well as ourown,sinceour hishistorian thedoublepurpose, tories serve whichwritten havealways histories alivetherecollection ofkeeping ofmemorable menandevents. served, We are thusof thatancient and honorable of wisemenof company thetribe, of bardsand story-tellers and minstrels, of soothsayers and priests, to whom in successive ageshasbeenentrusted thekeeping of theuseful Let nottheharmless, myths. word'myth' necessary putus outof countenance. In thehistory of history a myth is a oncevalid butnowdiscarded of thehuman version story, as our now validversionswill in due coursebe relegated to the category of discarded myths.Withourpredecessors, thebards and story-tellers and priests, we havetherefore thisin common: thatit is our function, as it was theirs, nottocreate, buttopreserve andperpetuate thesocial tradition; to harmonize, as well as ignorance and prejudice permit, theactual andtheremembered ofevents; series toenlarge andenrich thespecious common tous all to theendthat present 'society' (thetribe, thenation, or all mankind) mayjudgeof whatit is doingin thelight ofwhatit hasdoneand whatit hopes to do. as the artificial History extension of the socialmemory (and I concede thatthere willingly areother appropriate ways of apprehendinghuman is an artof longstanding, experience) necessarily so since it springs from theimpulse instinctively to enlarge therange of immediateexperience; and however camouflaged by the disfiguring ofscience, it is still in essence jargon whatit hasalways been.History in thissense is story, in aimalways a true story; a story that employs all thedevices of literary art (statement and generalization, narration anddescription, comparison andcomment andanalogy) to present the

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thatactually of events as thestory is understood from fiction, tiated the knowledge of refinement and and withthe increase occurred; let dutyis to be sureof his facts, thathis first recognizes historian is age history in every be whatit may. Nevertheless, meaning their meaning a significant which from events of actual taken to be a story version thepresent is that agetheillusion be derived; andin every may are versions former whereas aretrue, facts therelated is validbecause facts. or inadequate baseduponinaccurate because invalid thanin displayed moreimpressively Never was thisconviction which or from we live, in which age of erudition ourowntime-that littered history of course the Finding emerging. just we are perhaps of the last the historians philosophies, of exploded withthe debris fondly away (as they turned duped, to be forever unwilling century, factual of the examination to rigorous the 'interpretation' hoped)from of investigation, thetechnique Perfecting event, justas it occurred. and of information, thesources and edited collected laboriously they to illusive error ran earth, and withincredible persistence ingenuity it was certainly oftheMiddleAgeswaituntil thesignificance letting or Lustnauon Charles theFat was at Ingelheim known"whether battle, a hard fought in their many "life-blood", shedding i, 887", July this with truths of Sac and Soc". I haveno quarrel "for thesublime of man duties business.One of thefirst concern withhoti's so great is not to be duped,to be awareof his world; and to derivethe is from thatnever occurred events of humanexperience significance is always thefacts value. To establish ofdoubtful an enterprise surely butto suppose of thehistorian; thefirst and is indeed duty in order, will 'speakfor in all their once established fullness, thatthe facts, of the illusion peculiarly is an illusion. It was perhaps themselves' in some who found last of the magic special historians century those who was one it seems, The scientific historian, theword'scientific'. them. into without meaning anyextraneous thefacts injecting setforth accusmirror: Nietzsche manwhom described-"a He wastheobjective tobe known, that wants before ... he toprostration something tomed so himself and then sensitively, expands comes, waitsuntil something and gliding may things pastof spiritual eventhelight footsteps that but and film".1"It is not I who speak, notbe lostin his surface to applauding reproof which me",wasFustel's through speaks history from thisscientific history, "If a certain emerges students. philosophy all but of itsown accord, to emerge naturally, it mustbe permitted
1 BeyondGood and Evil, p. 140.

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tive reconstruction of vanishedevents, its formand substance are in2

Thus thescientific independently of thewillof thehistorian.2" hiistorian to it without deliberately renounced philosophy onlyto submit being aware. His philosophy wasjustthis, that bynottaking thought a cubit wouldbe addedto his stature.Withno other preconception thanthewillto know, thehistorian wouldreflect in his surface and film the"order ofevents in all places"; so that, throughout pasttimes in thefullness of time, wheninnumerable patient expert scholars, by "exhausting without thesources", should havereflected the refracting truth ofall thefacts, thedefinitive andimpregnable meaning ofhuman experience wouldemerge of itsown accord to enlighten and emancipatemankind.Hopingto find without forit,exsomething looking to obtain final pecting answers to life'sriddle by resolutely refusing to ask questions-it was surely themostromantic of realism species the oddestattempt ever made to get somethinig yet invented, for nothing! That moodis passing.The fullness of timeis notyet, overmuch a weariness learning proves totheflesh, and a younger that generation knows notVon Rankeis eagerto believe that Fustel's ifone counsel, of perfection, is equally one of futility. Even themostdisinterested historian has at leastone preconception, whichis thefixed idea that he has none. The facts setforth, are already in of history implicitly, the sources; and thehistorian who could restate without reshaping them would, by submerging and suffocating themindin diffuse existence, accomplish the superfluous taskof depriving humanexperienceofall significance. Left tothemselves, thefacts do notspeak;left to themselves they do notexist, notreally, sinceforall practical puLrposes there is no fact until someoneaffirms it. The least thehistorian can do with anyhistorical fact is to select and affirm it. To select and affirm eventhe simplest complex of facts is to give thema certain placein a certain pattern of ideas,and thisaloneis sufficient to give them a special meaning.However 'hard'or 'cold'they maybe, historical facts are after all notmaterial substances which, likebricks or scantlings, possess definite shapeand clear, persistent outline.To set forth historical facts is notcomparable todumping a barrow ofbricks. A brick retains itsform and pressure wherever placed;buttheform and substance of historical facts, having a negotiable existence onlyin literary discourse, varywiththe wordsemployed to convey them. Sincehistory is notpart oftheexternal material world, butan imaginaQuotedin EnglishHistorical Review,V. 1.

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discourse of literary in therealm separable: substance, beingan idea, notthe It is thus is form; andform, conveying theidea,is substance. undiscriminated but the perceiving fact, mindof the historian that whichthe factsare made to convey speaks:the specialmeaning thesubstance-form whichthehistorian emerges from employs to rea series of events not to create imaginatively present perception. this substance-form ofvanished events In constructing thehistorian, of an earlier likethebardsand story-tellers likeMr. Everyman, time, in which alonehe can be willbe conditioned by thespecious present awareof his world. Beingneither omniscient noromnipresent, the and everywhere; is notthesameperson historian always andforhim, theform and significance ofremembered as for Mr.Everyman, events, of will and extension likethe withthe velocity physical objects, vary After we can clearly see timeand placeof theobserver. fifty years whichspokethrough but Fustelwho thatit was nothistory Fustel, We see lessclearly thatthevoiceof spokethrough history. perhaps from static as one maysay, Fustelwas thevoice;amplified and freed of Mr. Everyman; what the admiring on that students applauded colored but a deftly was neither norFustel, famous occasion history more skillthe all of selected which Fustelfashioned, events pattern ofMr.Everyman's for notbeing aware ofdoing fully so,in theservice emotional needs-the emotional so essential to Frenchmen satisfaction, at that ofperceiving that French institutions were notofGerman time, be. Playeduponby all thediverse, origin. And so it mustalways willelicit out unnoted influences ofhisowntime, thehistorian history of documents by the sameprinciple, however moreconsciously and thatMr. Everyman to breed expertly applied, employs legends outof remembered and oraltradition. episodes Berate himas we willfornotreading ourbooks, Mr. Everyman is thanwe are,and sooner or laterwe must stronger adaptour knowlOtherwise he willleaveus toourowndevices, edgeto hisnecessities. a species of dryprofessional leaveus it maybe to cultivate arrogance out of thethinsoil of antiquarian research. growing Suchresearch, notin itself but forsomeulterior valuable purpose, will be of little in so faras it is transmuted intocommon import except knowledge. that liesinert in unread booksdoesno work The history in theworld. thatdoes workin theworld, thehistory The history thatinfluences is livinghistory, thatpattern the courseof history, of remembered whether true or false, thatenlarges and enriches thecollective events, thespecious ofMr. Everyman. It is forthis specious present, present

Everynman his own Historian

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ofhistory is a record reason that thehistory of the"newhistory" that in every and supplant age risesto confound theold. It should be a relief tous torenounce torecognize that omniscience, every generation, our own included, understand the past and will, mustinevitably, thefuture in thelight ofitsownrestricted anticipate must experience, tricks it finds forits inevitably playon thedead whatever necessary ownpeaceof mind. The appropriate trick foranyage is nota maliciousinvention to takeanyone designed in, but an unconscious and effort on thepart of 'society' to understand necessary whatit is doing in thelight of whatit has doneand whatit hopesto do. We, hissharein thisnecessary torians by profession, effort. But we do not ofthehuman ourversion impose on Mr.Everyman; in theend story it is rather Mr.Everyman whoimposes hisversion on us-compelling is pastpolitics, us,in an age ofpolitical to seethat revolution, history an of in age socialstress and conflict to search fortheeconomic interIf we remain too long recalcitrant Mr. Everyman will pretation. ignoreus, shelving our recondite worksbehindglass doorsrarely opened. Our proper function is notto repeat thepastbut to make use of it,to correct and rationalize forcommon use Mr. Everyman's of whatactually mythological adaptation happened.We are surely under bondtobe as honest andas intelligent as human frailty permits; butthesecret of our success in thelongrunis in conforming to the of Mr. Everyman, temper whichwe seemto guideonlybecause we areso sure, eventually, to follow it. Neither thevaluenorthedignity of history needsuffer byregarding it as a foreshortened and incomplete representation of thereality thatoncewas,an unstable pattern of remembered things redesigned andnewly colored to suit theconvenience ofthose whomakeuseofit. Nor need our laborsbe the less highly prizedbecauseour taskis our contributions limited, of incidental and temporary significance. is an indispensable History even thoughnot the highest formof intellectual endeavor, since it makes, as Santayana says, a gift of"great interests . . . to theheart. A barbarian is no lesssubject to thepast thanis thecivicman who knowswhatthepastis and meansto be loyalto it; but thebarbarian, forwantof a transpersonal memory, crawls among superstitions which he cannot understand or revoke and amongpeoplewhomhe mayhateor love,but whomhe can never think of raising to a higher plane, to thelevelof a purer happiness. The whole ofhuman dignity endeavor is thus bound up with hiistoric and as conscience issues, needsto be controlled by experience if it is

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to becomerational, so personalexperience itselfneeds to be enlarged ideallyif the failures and successesit reports are to touchimpersonal interests."3 I do not present thisview of history as one thatis stableand must prevail. Whatevervalidityit may claim, it is certain,on its own premises, to be supplanted;for its premises, imposedupon us by the climateof opinionin whichwe live and think, predispose us to regard all things, and all principles of things, as no more than "inconstant modes or fashions", as but the "concurrence, renewedfrommoment to moment, of forcespartingsooneror lateron theirway". It is the -limitation of the geneticapproachto human experience that it must be contentto transform problems since it can never solve them. the facts However accurately we may determine the 'facts'of history, and our interpretations of them,and our interpretation of themselves or a will be seen in a different our own interpretations, perspective less vividlightas mankindmovesintothe unknownfuture.Regarded man and his worldcan obviously as a process of becoming, historically, be understood since it is by definition only tentatively, still something as yet unfinished.Unfortunately for the in the making,something 'permanentcontribution' and the universally valid philosophy, time to-morrow and theenemyof man as theGreeksthought; passes; time, and all our in this and to-morrow to-morrow creeps petty yesterpace, in thelengthening and growdim: so that, of daysdiminish perspective even the moststriking events(the Declarationof Indethe centuries, theGreatWar itself; liketheDiet of theFrenchRevolution, pendence, Worms beforethem,like the signingof the Magna Carta and the of the Rubicon and the of Charlemagneand the crossing coronation forposterity, fade away into pale battleof Marathon) mustinevitably, foreach succeeding replicasof the originalpicture, generation losing, as theyrecedeintoa moredistant thatonce was past,some significance somequalityof enchantment thatonce was theirs. notedin them,

Cornell University.
3

CARI BECKER.

The Life of Reason,V. 68.