Self-Indulgent Historiography

Dear Editor:

Although the temporary psychological ad­vantages of moving from the Age of Anxiety to the Age of Triviality are undeniable, I do not think that either our students or our profession will derive much long-term bene­fit from surrendering the “triangle of state, event, and analysis of causation” to the new one of “society, duration, and cohesion” that Professor Carolyn C. Lougee appears to ad­vocate in her article on “Social History and the Introductory European Course” (Perspec­tives, September 1986).

It certainly is true that most of our stu­dents will never wield power, and one might add, it is almost guaranteed that very, very few historians will either. I do not think that these provide very good reasons to confuse history with anthropology or health educa­tion.

Of course we are all born, live in house­holds and communities, do various things, and die. On what grounds should our stu­dents be urged to see themselves as “histori­cal actors” on this account, and to what end should they extend their personal acquaint­ances in the manner of the “new history”?

I would think that our more important task is to help our students and readers transcend “everyday life” and recognize how much the character and quality of the latter are determined by the state and concrete developments in state, economy, and society and how important it is to ask hard questions and try to analyze chains of causation. This has nothing whatever to do with recent ef­forts by Mitterand and, it should be added, the historical advisers of Chancellor Kohl, to use history to “consolidate nation-state iden­tities” of a certain type. Certainly, there is much that is valuable and important in the not-really-so-new social history, but over the long run, students rightly will have little patience with a self-indulgent historiography of the kind prescribed by Professor Lougee. Furthermore, as she so neatly demonstrates by her worried remarks concerning Mitter­and, whether or not we forget the state, we may rest assured that the state will not forget us.