Some Observations on Contemporary Historical Theory
1950; Oxford University Press; Volume: 55; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês
10.2307/1843496
ISSN1937-5239
Autores Tópico(s)Australian History and Society
ResumoTHIS paper is offered as a contribution to the increasing consideration being given to historical theory and practice in the United States. The interest that the discussion of this subject has attracted, recently, derives in part from the enthusiasm that any challenge to tradition is apt to engender. As historians we know that past advances in our craft-as in science, painting, and mnusic -have been initiated largely by individuals who freed themselves from the bonds of tradition and custom wherever they found these hampering their own powers of reflection, observation and construction.1 The fame of such innovators in our craft as Frederick Jackson Turner, James Harvey Robinson, and Charles A. Beard, not to mention some of our contemporaries, is fresh among us. Added to the presumption that they have created in favor of any bold attack upon authority and traditionalism in history, there has developed among some historians in this country a conviction that in the light of presentday knowledge the scientific pretensions and other assumptions of the RankeNaive Realist2 school in Britain and America provide an insufficient basis for the conduct of historical research. Furthermore, recent struggles over domestic reform measures and the continuing international crisis have engendered among some of our fellows a desire for functional history that can contribute more largely to the solution of contemporary problems.3
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