Powell History Recommends {march 06}

[ScottP]

Hello all:

As any student of "Invitation to History" and "A First History for Adults"

knows, I consider Leopold von Ranke to the be the "Kant of History." It was

his work, and that of his nineteenth century followers that forged the

discipline of modern, value-barren "scientific" history. Fortunately, however,

the penetration of Rankean premises into the work of American historians

and history teachers was a gradual process. Some readers of history have

no doubt heard that the best history books were written around the turn of

the century (from c.1880 to c.1910). That is indeed true, and it is precisely

because the Rankean takeover was gradual that such early histories are

superior.

Among the early histories of Western civilization written in the twentieth

century, I am particularly happy to recommend "Modern Progress" by Willis

Mason West, which was first published in 1931, and is available from any of

the on-line used book stores, such as abebooks.com.

West's theme is progress. He values present-day America, freedom, and

technology, and he seeks to present the past in terms of the fundamentally

positive progression, without, however, treating progress as an oversimplification.

On the whole, "Modern Progress" is an admirable attempt to provide the whole

history of the West in one accessible tome.

Of course, West is not an Objectivist. His value system can only be described

as "liberal Christian"--with all the attendant confusions and contradictions. Like

many intellectuals of the period between the World Wars, he evinces a naive

optimism about international relations during that time, and a disconcerting

sympathy for communist Russia. The closer West gets to the 20th century,

the more the facts he selects and the interpretations he gives are troubling.

Also, West is sympathetic to religion in virtually all its forms, which creates

obvious difficulties in the interpretation and evaluation of Christianity's role in

the progress of Western civilization.

Despite such flaws, however, West's telling is fundamentally successful, for the

basic reason stated in the forward: "...history must leave no chasm between past

and present," because the point of history is to study "the common adventure

of mankind." As I've stated in my own lectures, I consider the rift between

history and values to be the fundamental reason why historians have failed

to make history accessible and relevant. As a historian, I've made it my

personal mission to seal the breach, in part by creating "A First History for

Adults", and it's exciting to find another scholar who has some sense of the

same purpose--and who succeeds because of it! West's "Modern Progress"

is definitely a resource that any adult student of history should have in their

library.

Regards,

Scott Powell.

www.powellhistory.com