HISTORIANS’ PARADOX
August 13, 2014
When I joined the Forensic
Studies, later Criminal Justice Department at Indiana University in 1976, my
colleague Ellen Dwyer invited me to join a history-sociology informal seminar
she was organizing with historian of crime Barbara Hanawalt. Barb was a specialist on crime in Elizabethan
England. I was the only “sociologist” in
the group. Members of the seminar
introduced me to the Social Science History Association meetings. I think I owe Ellen and Barb more than anyone
else for opening my passion for putting contemporary crime/criminality trends
in historical perspective.
Time and again when one
historian presented findings from her or his research, other historians would
find exceptions to any proposition the presenter stated about the significance
of her or his findings, akin to the law school exercise, “I can distinguish
your case.” As you can imagine, I stood
out as the most reckless generalizer in my presentations on trends in crime and
criminality figures. What more than one
historian among us seemed to prize most was to find that a social phenomenon in
a particular time and place was unique.
It was a stimulating Socratic exercise, but to me, it presents a
paradox.
If the historically most valued
contribution about a phenomenon in a time and place is that it is something
unique, then the truest, most beautiful history is one that never repeats
itself. What then of the saying that
those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it?
I’m an incorrigible
pragmatist. When I look at current
trends in violence and peacemaking efforts, I look for past parallels. As I write, President Obama has just ordered
that not combat troops, but advisers, will be sent to northern Iraq. And the CIA is reportedly doing its own
thing. I attended my first Vietnam
teach-in at Michigan in 1964, where (paradoxically for me), defended the domino
theory—that if we didn’t stop Communism in Vietnam, we would lose Southeast
Asia. We had just turned from having
only military advisers in Vietnam, to sending in combat troops. No proposition is certain, but President
Obama certainly is sliding down a slippery slope.
I can’t help adding one
observation about history. Any time
anyone describes an event, it is already history. We can’t avoid it. Love and peace, hal
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