becker what are historical facts

7/29/2019 becker what are historical facts

1/14

mbe Bestrn

oftical


2/14

28 THE WSTER POLITICAL QARRL

for his bsiness is to dig out the facts and pile them up for someone to useerhaps he may use them himself but at all events he must arrange tem

conveniently so that someone perhaps the sociologist o te econist may easily carry them away for use in sme strctal ntei

Such (with no doubt a little, but not much exaggeratin t give pntto the matter) are the common connotations of the words historical fact,as used by historians and other people Now, when I meet a wor wthch I am entirely unfamiliar, I nd it a good plan to look it up in thectionary and nd ot hat someone thinks it means But when I havefquently o use words with which everyne is perfectly familia worslike "cause and liberty and "progress and government when I

have to use words of this sort which everyone knows perfectly well, twise thing to do is to take a week o and think about them The resultis often atonishing for as often as not I nd that I have been talkngabout wors instea of real things Well, "historical fact is such a wo;and I suspect it would be worthwhile for us historians at least to tinabout his word more than we have done or the moment therefore,leaving the historan moving about in the past pilng p the cold fct, Iwish to inquire whether the historical fact is really as ard an stal asit is often supposed to be

d this inquiry I will throw int the for of three simple uestin.I wll ask the questions, I can't promise t answer them. The quetinare: () hat is the historical fact (2) Where is the historical fct?() hen is the historical fact Mind I say is nt I a granted that if we are interested in, let us say, the fact of the Magna at,e are inerested in it for our own sake and not for its sae; an n are living nw and not in 25 we must be interested in the Maga ataif at all, for wat it is and not for what it was.

irst then, hat is the historical fact? Let us take a sipl fact, assiple as the historian ften eals with, iz: "In te year 9 sacrossed th Rubicon A familiar fact this is, known t all, and biously ofsome importance since t is entioned in every history of the great aesar.But is this fact as siple as it sounds? Has it the clear, persistent outline

which we cmmnly attribute to simple historcal facts? When w

that aesar crssed the Rubicon we do not of course mean that aesa

crossed t alone, but wit his army. Te Rubicon is a small river, and I

dont know how long it took aesar's army t cross it but the crossing

mst surely have been accmpanied by many ats an many words anmay thoughts of many men That is to say, a thousand an ne lesser

facts went t make up the one simple fact tht Caear crssed theubicon and i we had someone, say ames oyce, to know and relte ll

these facts, it would no doubt require book of 794 pages to present this


3/14

WH RE HISORICL FCS? 329

one fact that Caesa crossed the Rubicn. hus the simple fact tun utto be not a simple fact t all It s the sttement that is smpl - a impl

genealaton of a thousand and one factWell, anyhow Caesar crosed th Rubcon. But what of it? Mn

other peole a other times crosed the Rubcon. hy crge t up Caesar? Why for two thousand years has the world treasured ths smplefact that n the yer 49 B.C Caesar crossed the Rubicon? What f indeed? I I, as historian, have nothng to give you but ths fact tken bitself with ts clear outline, with no fringes or strings ted to t, I sholdhave to sa, if I were an honest man, why nothing of t, nothng a allt may be a fact but it is nothing to us he truth is, of course, that th

smple fact h strings ted to t, nd that s why t has been treasredfor two thousand years It is tid by these strngs to innumerable otherfacts, so that it cant mean anything except by losng its clea outlne. Itcant mean anythng except as it is absorbed nto the complex we ofcircumstances which brouht t into bein. his complex web of crcumstances was the sers of events rown out of the relation of Caesar toPompey, and the Roman Senate, and the Roman Reublic, and all theeople who had somethin to do with these. Caesar had been ordered bythe Roman Senate to resin his command of the army n Gal. He decded

to disobey the Roman Senate. Instead of resgning hs command, hemarched on Rome, ained the mastery o the Republc, and at last, as weare told, bestrode the narrow world lk a colossus. Wll, the Rubiconhppened to be the boundry between Gul nd Itly, so tht by the ac fcrossng the Rubcon wt s rmy Cesrs treason becme n ccomplished fct nd the subseuent gret events followed n due cure Aprtrom these gret events nd complcted reltons, te crossng of the Rubicon mens nothing, is not n historicl fct poperly seking t ll Initself it is nothng for u; it becmes something for us, not n tself, but s

symbol of something lse, symbol standing for a long seies of eventswhich have to do with the most intngible and mmateral elites, vz:the reltion between Cer nd te millions of peopl of the Romn world

hus the simple hstorcl fact turns out to be not a hard, cold somthing wt cle outlne, nd mearbl pessue, lke a brck. It is so fs we can now it, only symbol, a impl statement c i gnealizton of tousnd n one simpler cts wich we o not or te momentcre t us, nd th generlztion tself we cnnot ue prt from thewder fcts nd generlztons whch it symbolizs. And genrlly spk

ing, th more smple n storcl fct s, te more cler nd dente andprovble it s, te les use t is to us n nd fr itself

Less simpl fcts llustrt all ts eully well, even better perps.For example, te fact that "Indlgencs were sold n Germany n 117.his fact can be proved down to the grond No one doubts t. t taken


4/14

0 TH WSTR POLITICAL QARTRLY

by itself the fact is nothing, means nothing It also is a eneralization of athousand and one facts, a thousand and one actions of innumerable sellrs

and buyers of indulgences all ver Germany at many dierent times; andthis also acquires signicance and meaning only as it is elated to otherfacts and wider gnealizations

But there are even more indenite and impalpable facts than thesn the middle of the nineteenth century German historians (and thers),studying the customs of the primitive German tribes, iscovered a communal institution which they called the German or Teutonic Mark. TheGerman ark was the product f the historians fertile imaginatin wrkng on a few sentences in Caesars Gallic Wars and a few passages in a book

called Gen written by Tacitus, a disgruntled Rman who tried to getid of a complex by idealizing the primitive Germans The German Markof the histrians was largely a myth, corresponding t n reality. TheGerman Mark is nevertheless an histrical fact The idea f th Germanark in the minds of the German historians is a fact in the intellectualhistry of the nineteenth century and an important one too All theelaborate notes I took in college on the German ark I have thereforelong since transferred t those ling cases which contain my ntes on thenineteenth century and there they now repose, side by side with notes on

the Russian ir, on Hegel's Philosophy of History, on the Positivism ofAugust Comte, on Bentham's greatest good to the greatest number, onhe economic theory of the British classical economists, and other illsionsf that time.

hat then is the historical fact? Far be it from me to dene so illusiveand intangible a thing! But provisionally will say this the historian maye interested in anything that has t do with the life of man in the pastany act or event, any emotion which men have expressed, any idea, trueor false, which they have entertained Very well, the histoian is inteeste

in some event of this sort. Yet he cannot deal directly with this event itself,since the event itself has disappeared hat he can eal with directly is astteent aout the event. He deals in short not with the event, but witha statement which arms the fct that th nt occued When ereally get down to the hard facts, what the historian is always dealing ithis an ation an armation of the fact that something is true Thereis thus a distinction of capital imprtance to be made: the ditinctinbetween the ephemeral event which disappears, and the armatin abutthe event which persists For all practical purposes it is this armatin

about the event that constitutes for us the historical fact f so the historicalfact is not the past event, but a symbol which enables us to recreate itimaginatively. Of a symbol it is hardly worthwhile to say that it is cldor hard t is dangerous to say even that it is true r false The safestthing to say about a symbol is that it is more or less appropriate


5/14

WHA ARE HISORICAL FACS? 33

This brings me to the second uestion - Where is the historical fact?I will say at once, however brash it sounds, that the historical fact is in

someone's mind or it is nowhere. To illustrate this statement I will takean event familiar to all. "Abraham incoln was assassinated in Ford'sTheater in Washington on the 4th of April 865. That wa an actaleven, occurrence, fact at the moment of happening. But speaking now,in the year 1926, we say it is an hstorical fact. We don't say that it wan historical fact, for that would imply that it no longer is one. We sayhat it wa an actual event, but is ow an historical fact. The actual occurrence and the historical fact, however closely connected, are two different things. Very well, if the assassination of incoln is an histricalfact, where is this fact now? incoln is not being assassinated now in Ford'sTheate, or anywhere else (except perhaps in propagandist literature!.The actual occurrence, the event, has passed, is gone forever, never to berepeated, never to be again experienced or witnessed by any living person.Yet this is precisely the sort of thing the historian is concerned withevents, acts, thoughts, emotions that have forever vanished as actual occurrences. ow can the historian deal with vanished realities? can dalwith them because these vanished realities give place to pale rections,impalpable images or ideas of themselves, and these pal reections, andimpalpable images which cannot be touched or handled are all that is leftof the actual occurrence. These ar therefore what the historian deals with.These are his material. e has t be satised with these for the verygood reason that he has nothing else. Well then, where are they - thesepale reections and impalpable images of the actual? Where are these facts?They are, as I said before, in his mind, or in somebody's mind, or thy arenowhere.

Ah, but they are in the records, in th sources, I hear someone say.Yes, in a sense, they are in the sources. The historical fact of incolnsassassination is in the records - in contemporary newspapers letters,diaries, tc. In a sense the fact is there, but in what sense? The recordsare after all only paper, over the surface of which ink has been distributed

in certain patterns. And even these patterns were not made by th actual

occurrence, the assassination of incoln. The patterns are themselves only

historie of the event, made by someone who had in his mind an imageor idea of incoln's assassination. Of course we, you and I, can, by looking

a these inky patterns, form in o minds images or ideas more or less like

those in the mind of the person who made the patterns. But i there werenow no one in the world who could make any meaning out o the patternedrecords or sources, the fact of incoln's assassination would cease to bean historical fact. You might perhaps call it a dead fact but a act which

is not only dead, but not known ever to have been alive, or even known


6/14

332 TH WSTR POTICA QARTRY

to be now dead, is surely not much of fact. At all events, the historicalfacts lyng dead in the records can do nothing good or evil n the world.

They become historical facts, capable of doin work, of making a dierence,only when someone, you or I, brings them alive in our minds by means ofpictures, images, or ideas of the actual occurrence. or this rean I saythat the historical fact is in someones mind, or it is nowhere, because wenit is in no ones mind it lies in the records inert, incapable f makin adierence in the world.

But perhaps you will say that the assassination of Lincoln has made aderence in the world, and that this dierence is nw eectively woring,even if, for a moment, or an hour or a week, no one in the world has the

image the actual occurrence n mind. Quite obviously s, but why?Quite obviously because after the actual event people remembered t, andbecause ever since they have continued to remember it, by repeatedly forming images of it in their mind. If the people of the United tates had beenincapable of enduring memory, for example, like dos as I assume; notbeing a dog I cant be sure would the assassination of Lincoln be nwdoing work in the world, making a dierence? If everyone had forgottenthe occurrence after fortyeight hours, what dierence would the occurence have made, then or since? It is precisely because people have long

memres, and have constantly formed images in their minds of the asassination of Lincoln, that the universe contans the historical fact whichperssts as well as the actual event which does not persist. It is the persstinghistorical act, rather than the ephemeral actual event, which maks aderence to us now; and the histrical fact makes a dierence onlybecause t is, and so far as it is, in human minds.

Now for the third uestion - hen is the historical act? If you agreewth what has been said which s extremely doubtful the answer seemssimple enough. If the historical fact is present, imaginatively, in smeons

mind, then it is now, a part of the present. But the word present is aslippery wrd, and the thing itself is worse than the word. he present isan indenable pont in time, gone before you can think it; the image or

idea which I have now present in mind slips instantly into the past. But

mages or ides of past events re often, perhaps always, inseparable from

images r ideas of the future. ake n illustratin. I awake this mornin,

and amon the thins my memory drags in to enlighten or distess m s

vague noton that there ws something I needed particulrly to rememer

but cannot - common experence surely. What is it tht I needed tremember I cannt recll; ut I can recll that I made a note f it n de

to jg my memory. o I consult my little pocket memorandum book

little Privte Record ce which I carry about, lled wth histrcal

sources. I tke out my memorndum bok in oder t do little historcl


7/14

WHAT AR HISTORICAL ACTS 333

research and there I nd ol. I, p. 0 the dead historical fact - "PaSmith's coal bill toda: $1,016. The image o the memorandum bok

now drops out of mind, and is replaced b another image - an image owhat h an image, an idea, a picture call it what ou will madeup of three things more or less inseparable irst the image of mself ordering coal from Smith last summer second, the image f mself holdingthe idea in mind that I must pa the bill third, the image of mself goingdown to Smiths oce at four o'clock to pa it. The image is partl ofthings done in the past, and partl of things t be done in the future butit is more or less all ne image now present in mind.

Smeone ma ask, "re ou talking f histor or of the rinar illsof ever da that men are heir to Well perhaps Smiths coal bll is onlm personal aair, of no concern to anone else, xcept Smith t be sure.Take then another example. I am thinking of the Congress of Berlin, anthat is without doubt histor - the real thing. The historical facts of theCongress o Berlin I brng alive in memor, imaginativel. But I am makingan image of the Congress f Berlin for a purpose and indeed without apurpose no one would take the trouble t bring historical facts t mind. purpose happen t be to conve this image of the Congress of Berlinto m class in istor 4 in Rom C, tomorrow afternon at 3 oclockow I nd that inseparable from this imag of the ongress of Berlin,which occurred in the past, are itting images f mself cnveing thisimage of the Cngress of Berlin to m class tomorrow in Room Ipicture mself standing there monotonousl talking, I hear the laboredsentences painfull issuing forth, I picture the students faces alert or boredas the case ma be s that images f this uture even enter into theimagined picture of the Congress of Berlin, a past event enter int it,coloring and shaping it too, t the end that the perormance ma d creditto me, or be intelligible to immature minds, or be compressed wihin thelimits of ft minutes, or to accomplish some other desire end. Well, thisliving historical fact, this mixed image o the coal bill or the Congress fBerlin is it past, present or future I cnnot sa. Perhaps it moves withthe velocit of light, and is timeless. t all events it is real histor to me,

hich I hope to make convincing and real t Smith, r to the class n

Rom CI have now asked m three uestions, and have made some remarks

about them all. I dont know whether these remarks will strik ou as

uite beside the mark, or as merel bvious, or as novel. If there is annovelt in them, it arises, I think, from ou inveterate habit of thinking

of the worl of histor as part of the external worl, and of historical factsas actual events. In truth the actual past is gone and the world of histor

is an intanile world, recreated imaginativel, an present in ou ins.


8/14

4 TH WSTRN POITICA QARRY

If as I think this is true then there are certain important implicationsgrowing out of it and if you are not already exhausted I should like to

touch upon a few of these implications. I will present them "rstly"secondly and so on like the points of a sermon without any attemptat coordination.

One implication is that by no possibility can the historian present inits entirety any actual event even the simplest. You may think this acommonplace and I do too but still it needs to be often repeated becauseone of the fondest illusions of nineteenth century historians was that thehistorian the "scientic historian would do just that he would "presentall the facts and let them speak for themselves. The historian would

contribute nothing himself except the sensitive plate of his mind uponwhich the objective fats would register their own unimpeachable meaning. Nietzsche has described the nineteenthcentury "objective man withthe acid precisin of his inimitable phrases.

The objece an s ruh a rror Accusoed o rosrang hself beforesoehng ha wshes o be nown wh such desres only as nowng les, he wasunl soehng coes and hen exands hself sensely so ha een he lgh fooses and gldng as of srual bengs ay no be los on hs surface and l Whaeer ersonaly he sl ossesses sees o h - dsurbng; so uch has he coe oregard hself as he reecon of ouward fors and eens Shoud one wsh oe an

hared fro h, he wll do wha he can and furnsh wha he can u one us nobe surred f shoud no be uh Hs rrorg and eernally selfolshng souno onger knows how o ar no longer how o deny . He s an nsruen, bunohng n hself - presqu rien!

The classical expression of this notion of the historian as instrumentis the famous statement attributed to Fustel de oulanges. Half a centuryago the French mind was reacting strongly against the romantic idea thatpolitical liberty was brought into Gaul by the primitive Germans andFustel was a leader in this reaction. One day he was lecturing to hisstudents on early French institutions and suddenly they broke into applause. Gentlemen said Fustel "do not applaud. It is not I wh speakbut history that speaks through me. And all the time this calm disinterested historian was endeavoring with concntrated purpose to provethat the damned Germans had nothing to do with French civilization. Thatof course was why the students applauded and why Fustel told themthat it was history that was speaking.

Well for twenty years I have taken it for granted that no one could

longer elieve so preposterous an idea. But the notion continues to bob

up regularly and only the other day riding on the train to the meeting ofthe Historical Association Mr. A. . Beveridge eminent and honored his

torian assured me dogmatically (it would be dogmatically that the hi

tori an has nothing to do but "present all the facts and let them speak fr

themselves. And so I repeat what I have been teaching for twenty years


9/14

WHAT HISTORICAL ACTS 5

that ths notn s preposterous rst, because t s mposble t present allthe facts and second, because even f ou could preset all the facts the

mserable thngs uldn sa anthng, ould sa just nothng at all.Let us return t the smple fact "Lncol as assassnated n ords

eter, n Washngtn, prl 14, 185. Ths s not l the facts It s,f ou lke, a repsenton of all the facts, and representaton thatperhaps satses one hstoran. But another hstoran, for soe reason,s not satsed. e sas On Aprl 14, 185, n Washngton, Lncoln,sttng n a prvate box n ords heater tchng a pla, as shot bJohn lkes ooth, h then jumped to the stage crn out, 'Sc sempeyans!" hat s a tre rmaton abut the event also. It represents,

f ou lke, ll the facts too. But ts form and cntent (ne and the samethn n lterary dscourse derent, because t contns more of thefcts than the ther. Well, the pnt s that an number f armtns(an nnte number f the sources ere sucent culd be made aboutthe actual event, all true, all representng the event, but some contanngmore and some less of the factual aspects of the total event. But b npossblt can the hstoran make armaton descrbng all of the factsall of the acts, thughts, emtons of all of te persons h contrbutedto the actual event n ts entret. One hstoran ll therefore necessrl

choose certan armatons about the event, and relate them n a certna, rejectng ther rmatons nd other as of relatng them. notherhstorn ll necessarl make a deent chce. Wh? What s t thtleads one hstoran t make, out of ll the posble tru armatons aboutthe ven event, certan armaton and not others h, the purposehe has n hs mnd ll determne that. And the purpose he has n mndll determn the precse meanng hch he erves from th event. heevent tself, the facts, o not sa anthng, d not mpse n meanng.It s the hstorn h speaks, ho mposes a menn.

A second mplcaton follos from ths. It s that the hstran canntelmnate the prsonal euaton. Of ourse, no one can not even, I thnk,

the naturl scentst he unvers speks t us onl n response t our

purposes nd even the most objectve constructons, those, let us , of

the theoretcl phscst, are not the sle pssble constructon, but onl

such s are found most convenent fr some humn need or purpose

evertheless, the phscst cn elmnte the person eutn t reter

extent, or at last n a derent a, than the hstoran, because he eals,

as the hstrn does not, th an external orld drectl. he phscstpresdes t the lvng event, the hstoran presdes onl a the nuest of ts

remans If I ere alone n the unverse and gashed m nger on a shrprck, I could never be certan that there s anthng there but m conscusness f the rock and gashed nger. But f ten ther men n precsel


10/14

336 TH WTR POLITCL QURRLY

the sme wy sh their ngers on the sme shrp roc we cn by compring impressions infer tht there is smething there besies consciousness.

There is n externl wrl there The physicist cn gsh his nger n thec s mny times s he lies n get others to it until they re llcertin of the fcts. He cn s ington sys me pinterreings fthe behvior of the physicl worl s mny times s he lies for givenhenomenon until he n his colleges re stise. When their minsll rest stise they hve n explntin wht is clle the truth utsuppse the physicist h t rech his cnclusins from miscellneusecors me by ll srts f peple o periments tht h been min the pst ech eperiment me only once n nne of them cpble

f being repete. The externl worl he wul then hve to el withwoul be the recrs. Tht is the cse f the histrin. The nly terlwrl he hs t el with is th rers. cn nee l t the recorss ften s h lies n he n get zens thers l t them:n some things some ts cn in this wy be estblishe n geeupn s for exmple the t tht the ocument nown s the Declrtin of Inepenence ws vte n July , 17. But the mening nsignicnce of this fct cnnot be thus gree upon bcuse the series fevents in which it hs plce cnnt be encte gin n gin une

vrying conitions in rer t see wht eet the vritions woul hve.he historin hs t jue the sinicnc the eies vents fmth ne sngle perfrmnce neve t be epete n neve sin theecors re incomplete n imperfect cpble of eing fully nown or fullyrme. Thus int th imgine fcts n ther mning there enters thpersonl eqution. The history f ny vent is never precisely the smething t two irent persns n t is well nwn tht every genertnwrites the sme histry in new wy n puts upn it new cnstuctin.

The esn why this is so - why the sme seies of vnishe events is

ierently imgine in ech succeeing generion - is th ur imnepictur f the ctu event is wys etermin by tw things: 1 y the

ctul event itslf nsfr s w cn now smthing bout it n by

our wn prsent purpses esirs prepossessions n prejuics ll fwhich enter into the process of nowin it. h ctul et ontribut

smethng to th imgine picure but th min tht hol t im

icture lwys contributes something to. This is why ther is no more

scinting or illuminting phs of history thn histriphy - th h

ory o history: th history tht is o wht successiv enertins hvmgine th pst t be li. It is impssibl t unerstn th hisory

o certin gret events without nowing wht the ctors in thos entsthemselves thought bout history. For exmple it helps immnsely to

nerstn why the lers th Americn n French Rvolutions cte


11/14

HAT ARE HISTORICA FACTS 337

nd thught s they did if we nw wht their ide f clssicl histry ws.hey desired, t put it siply, t be virtuus republicns, nd t ct the

prt. Well, they were ble t ct the prt f virtuus republicns uchre ectively becuse they crried rund in their heds n ide, ridel if yu prefer, f Gree republicnis nd Rn virtue. But fcurse their wn desire t be virtuus republicns hd gret inuence ining the thin the Gree nd Rns, wh they hd been tughtt dire by reding the cssics in schl, were virtuus republicns t.heir ige f the present nd future nd their ige f the clssic pstwere inseprble, bund tgether - were relly ne nd the se thing.

In this wy the present inuences ur ide f the pst, nd ur ide fthe pst inuences the present. We re ccusted t sy tht the presentis the prduct f ll the pst; nd this is wht is rdinrily ent by thehistrins dctrine f histricl cntinuity. But it is nly hlf truth.It is eqully true, nd n ere prdx, t sy tht the pst ur iginedpicture f it) is the prduct f ll the present. We build ur cnceptinsf histry prtly ut f ur present needs nd purpses. he pst is inf screen upn which we prject ur visin f the future; nd it is indeed ving picture, brrwing uch f its fr nd clr fr ur fersnd spirtins. he dctrine f histricl cntinuity is bdly in need fverhuling in the light f these suggestins; fr tht dctrine ws itselfne f thse pictures which the erly nineteenth century threw upn thescreen f the pst in rder t quiet its deepseted frs - fers ccsinedby the French Revlutin nd the Nplenic wrs.

A third iplictin is tht n ne cn prt by histricl reserch,r nt uch, unless he des se fr hiself. Histricl nwledge, hwever richly stred in bs r in the inds f prfessrs f histry, is ngd t e unless I hve se f it. In this respect, histricl reserchdiers prfundly fr reserch in the nturl sciences, t lest in sef the. Fr exple, I nw n physics, but I prt fr physicl reserches every night by the siple ct f pressing n electric light buttn.And everyne cn prt in this wy fr reserches in physics withut

nwing ny physics, withut nwing even tht there is such thing s

physics. But with histry it is dierent. Henry Frd, fr exple, cnt

prt fr ll the histricl reserches f tw thusnd yers, becuse

he nws s little histry hiself. By n pressing f ny buttn cn he d

the spre roos of is ind wit the light of hun experience.

A furth iplictin is ore iprtnt thn the thers. It is tht everynrl persn des nw se histry, gd del in fct. Of curse we

ften her sene sy I dnt nw ny histry; I wish I new sehistry; I ust iprve y ind by lerning se histry. We nw

wht is ent. his persn ens tht he hs never red ny histry bs


12/14

338 THE WESTER POITICA QARER

r studied histry in cllege nd s he thinks he knws n histry. But it isprecisely this cnventinl ntin f histry s sething externl t us,

s bdy f dull knwledge lcked up in bks, tht bscures it relmenin. Fr, I repet it will ber repeting) every nrl persn everyn, wn, nd child - des knw sme histry, enugh fr his iedite purpses; therwise he wuld be lst sul indeed. I suppseyself, fr exple, t hve wkened this rning with lss f ery.I ll right therwise but I cnt reeber nything tht hppenedin the pst. Wht is the result he result is tht I dnt knw wh I ,where I , where t g, r wht t d. I cnt ttend t y duties t theuniversity, I cnt red this pper efre the Reserch Club. In shrt, y

present wuld be unintelligible nd y future ningless. Why hy,becuse I hd suddenly cesed t knw ny histry. Wht hppens whenI wke up in the rning is tht y ery reches ut int the pst ndgthers tgether thse iges f pst events, f bjects seen, f wrdsspken nd f thuhts thught in the pst, which re necessry t giveme n rdered wrd live n, necessry t rien e in y persnlwrld. Well, this cllectin f iges nd ides f thins pst is histry,y cnd f livin histry, series f ige f the pst which shiftsnd efrs t every ent f the dy in espnse t the exigencies f

y dily living. Every n hs knwledge f histry in this sense, whichis the nly vitl sense in which he cn hve knwledge f histry. Everyn hs se knwledge f pst events, e r less ccute knwledgeenuh, nd ccurte enuh, f his purpses, wht he regrds s such.Hw uch nd hw ccute, will depend n the n nd his purpses.w, the pint is tht histry in the frl sense, histry s we cnlythink f it, is nly n extensin f ery. Knwledge histry, insfs it is living histry nd nt ded knwledge lcked up in ntebks, isnly n enrichent f ur inds with the ultiplied iges f vents,

plces, peples, ides, etins utside ur persnl experience, n enrichent f ur experience by brining int u inds eries f the ex

perience f the cunit, the ntin, the rce. Its chief vlue, fr the

individul, is dubtless tht it enbles n t rient hiself in lrger

wld thn the erly persnl, hs the eect f hi f plcing the pettynd intlerble present in lnger perspective, thus enbling hi t judge

the cts nd thuhts f en, his wn included, n the bsis f n x

perience lss iedite nd esticted.

A fth iplictin is tht the kind f histry tht hs st inuenceupn the life f the cunity nd the curse f events is the histry thtcn en crry rund in their heds. It wnt d t sy tht histry

hs n inuence upn the curse f events becuse peple efuse t redhistry bks. Whethe the generl un f peple ed histry boks r nt,


13/14

WHAT AR HSTORIA ATS 339

they nevtbly pcture the pst n se fshn ther, nd ths pctue,hwever lttle t crrespnds t the rel pst, helps t deterne ther

des but pltcs nd scety hs s especlly true n tes f exctement, n crtcl tes, n te f wr bve ll It s precsely n suchtes tht they fr (wth the ecent help f cl prpgnd! ndelzed pcture f the pst, brn f ther etns nd desres wrngn fentry scrps f nwledge gthered, r rther wng n unthe, fr every cncevble surce, rble r nt tters nthng.ubtless the prper functn f erudte hstrcl reserch s t be revercrrectng the cn ge f the st by brngng t t the test f relleinftn. ut the prfessnl hstrn wll never get hs wn chstened

nd creced f the pst nt cn nds f n ne reds hss. s bos y be s sld s yu le, but ther scl nuence wllbe f pele d nt red the nd nt erey red the, but red thewlnly nd wth unerstndng

It s, ndeed, nt whlly the hstrn's fult tht the ss f enwll nt red gd hstry wllngly nd wth understndng ut I thn weshuld nt be t cplcent but t. he recent Wrld Wr leves usth lttle rund ndeed fr beg cplcent but nythng but certnlyt funshes us wth n resn fr suppsng tht hstrcl reserch hs

much nuence n the cuse f events. he nneteenth century s ftenclled te e f cence, nd t s ften clled the ge f hstry thsttements re crrect enuh. urng the hundred yers tht pssed between 8 nd 19 n unprecedented nd ncredble unt f reserchws crred n, resech nt every eld f hsty nue, crtcl, exhustv (nd exhustng reserch. Our lbres re lled wth thsstred up nwledge f the pst nd never befre hs there been t thedspsl f scety s uch relble nwledge f hun experenceht nuence hs ll ths expert reserch hd upn the scl lfe f ur

tme? Hs t dne nythng t restn the flshness f pltcns tenhnce the wsd f sttesen Hs t dne nythng t enlghten thess f the peple, r t enble the t ct wth greter wsd nespnse t e resned purpse? Very lttle surely, f nythnCertnly hundred yers f expet hstrcl reserch dd nthng tevent the Wrld W, the st futle exhbtn f unresn, te t lln ll, ever de by cvlzed scety. Gvernents nd peples rushednt ths wr wth undnshed stupdty, wth unted fntcs, wthunpred cpcty fr decevng theselves nd thers. I d nt sy tht

hstrcl reserch s t ble fr the Wrld Wr. I sy tht t hd lttler n nuence upn t, ne wy r nther

It s erestng, lthuh n necessry prt f ths pper, t cntrst

ths neble nuence f hstorcl reserch upn socl lfe wth theprfund nuence f scentc reserch. hundred yers f scentc


14/14

340 THE WESTER OITIA QARER

eserch hs trnsfored the condtons of lfe. ow t hs done ths sknown to ll. By enblng en to control ntur forces t hs de lfe

ore cofortble nd convenent, t lest fo the welltod. t hs doneuch to prevent nd cure dsese, to levte pn n sueng. But tsbenets re not unxed. By ccelertng the speed nd pressure of lfe ths nected nto t nervous strn, restlessness, cpcty for rrttonnd n ptence of restrnt never before known. And ths power whchscentc reserch lys t the feet of socety serves eqully well ll whocn ke use of t the hrbngers of deth s well s of lfe. t wsscentc reserch tht de the wr of 114, whch hstorcl reserch ddnothng to prevent, world wr. Becuse of scentc reserch t could be,

nd ws, fought wth ore cruelty nd ruthlessness, nd on grnderscle, thn ny prevous wr; becuse of scentc reserch t bece systetc ssed butchery such s no one hd dreed of, or supposedpossble. do not sy tht scentc reserch s to ble for the wr sytht t de t the ghstly thng t ws, deterned ts extent nd chrcter.Wht pontng out s tht scentc reserch hs hd profoundnuence n chngng the condtons of odern fe, wheres hstorclreserch hs hd t best only neglgble nuence. hether the profoundnuence of the one hs been of ore or less benet to hunty thn the

neglgble nuence of the other, unble to deterne. Doubtless boththe oys nd frustrtons of odern lfe, ncludng those of the scholrlyctvtes, y be ll ccoodtd nd reconcle wthn tht wonderfulde of Prgress whch we ll lke to ccl - none ore so, surely, thnhstorns nd scentsts.

becker what are historical facts

Documents