relax (#61710)
by Nathaniel Brian Bates on May 30, 2005 at 3:39 AM

Relax, Professor Raphael. You BOTH write excellent histories. I like your "Yin" emphasis on the social dimension, and his "Yang" emphasis on Meat and Potatoes American history. Both of you use documents that are primary in nature, and VERY INTERESTING.

As for whether the "people" create revolutions or not. I believe that G-d ordains all of history, working through human agents when He wills. He certainly worked through George Washington and Ben Franklin, as He willed. However, there was also a broader movement at work. I do not believe in "Manifest Destiny" in the sense of excusing what happened to the Natives. I am simply saying that history has reasons that are beyond the scope of all of us, historians included. However, the historians make it INTERESTING by studying it, leaving us with delicious questions that further enlighten.

There is room for both the "great men" and "social history" schools in this endeaver. Either one are more interesting than names and dates.