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.