Editor's Note: Perspectives on History welcomes letters to the editor on issues discussed in its pages or which are relevant to the profession. Letters should follow our guidelines. Letters selected for publication may be edited for style, length, and content. Publication of letters does not signify endorsement by the AHA of the views expressed by the authors, who alone are responsible for ensuring accuracy of the letters' contents. Institutional affiliations are provided only for identification purposes.

To the Editor:

The September 2012 issue [of Perspectives on History] was especially good: An elegant essay by our president, complemented nicely by James Oakes's piece, and surrounded by a host of readable articles.

Having in mind also some recent issues of the American Historical Review, one might be inclined to take a somewhat Whiggish view of historiographical developments in the past half-century or so.

—Trygve Tholfsen
New York, NY