On the Rational Ideal of the World Historian
“The desire to be free from all prejudice in the judgment of historical facts is, then, the keynote of all our philosophy of historical criticism; and the desire to retain interest – human interest – is the keynote of our philosophy of historical composition” “To attain [this]… There must be no race prejudice, no national prejudice. There must be no attempt to blacken or whiten historical characters, in correspondence with the personal bias. There must be no special pleading
What manner of man is this Puritan?
Today I have been reading through an assortment of Puritan primary documents, including the Mayflower Compact and an assortment of letters written by early Mayflower settlers. How brilliantly they illustrate the Roman administration intersecting with the Viking spirit of entrepreneurship and venture. Idealism and pragmatism bear out in equal measure. Or is it that only men of this ilk were called or motivated to come to this strange new land? Perhaps it is worth noting that t
On the Changing Nature of Histories
“Each generation abandons the ideas of its predecessors like stranded ships.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson “A goodly number of works which were famous half a century ago are now absolutely inaccessible to the would-be purchaser… A few copies of these works are still extant in private collections and public libraries, but the fate of these is assured. Libraries are constructed to be burned. Some day a lick of flame will wipe out the last copy of any work issued only in a single editio
Waiting for a Superman Who Sent His Children to Private School
You can get so confused that you'll start in to race down long wiggled roads at a break-necking pace and grind on for miles cross weirdish wild space, headed, I fear, toward a most useless place. Oh, the Places You’ll Go! -Dr. Seuss Since it’s getting so much water cooler talk amongst educators, I swung by the Red Box and dropped a buck on the new docutragedy on education, Waiting for Superman. I could not help but to be struck by a few things, as follow. No, this has nothing
Sir Walter Raleigh – First World History of the Modern Period
“The best guide to the historic point of view of the generations which ushered in…the modern period is furnished by History of the World which Sir Walter Raleigh wrote toward the close of his life, late in the 16th century. Raleigh was not a historian by choice, but was led to his task as a diversion during the time of his imprisonment. The work as far as he completed it is in five books…” “It will appear that Raleigh did not carry his history beyond the early Roman period, y
The Library of Diodorus the Sicilian – The First True World History
“Of the works of this class – World Histories proper – the oldest one that has come down to us is at the same time probably the most comprehensive in scope, and the most extensive in point of matter, of any that was written in ancient times. This is the so-called Library of Diodorus the Sicilian…who lived during the time of Julius Caesar. He set himself the explicit task of writing a comprehensive history of the world, and he devoted thirty years to the accomplishment of this
