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Ari Helo - History, Politics and the American Past: Essays on Methodology

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Ari Helo History, Politics and the American Past: Essays on Methodology
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History, Politics and the American Past assesses the connection between historiography and politics in America, arguing for a distinction between the past, and the history written about it.

While necessarily interpreting the past, professional historians and those with a general interest alike remain tempted, consciously or not, to make American history serve their own political and moral views. There is a tendency to impose our present values on the past, and sometimes go so far as to believe the past can be changed by present action. In this volume, Ari Helo analyzes examples of this, including metahistorical narratives, Presidential speeches, and the sometimes vague rhetoric of the Confederate statue campaigns, before diagnosing the source of doing so and suggesting how we might avoid it. Taking America as its example, the book illuminates essential methodological issues related to history writing as well as deciphering the relationship of understanding between practicing historians and theorists of history in an accessible way.

The book will be of interest to scholars and students of American history, historiography, American studies and cultural studies, providing a vivid account of how to make sense of American history.

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History, Politics, and the American Past
History, Politics, and the American Past assesses the connection between historiography and politics in America on the basis of an important methodological distinction between the past and the history written about it.
While necessarily interpreting the past, professional historians and those with a general interest alike remain tempted, consciously or not, to make American history serve their own political and moral views. There is a tendency to impose our present values on the past and sometimes go so far as to believe the past can be changed by present action. In this volume, Ari Helo analyzes examples of this, including metahistorical narratives, presidential speeches, and the occasionally vague rhetoric of the Confederate statue campaigns, before diagnosing the source of doing so and suggesting how we might avoid it. Taking America as its example, the book illuminates essential methodological issues related to history writing while deciphering the complicated relationship of history and politics.
The book will be of interest to scholars and students of American history, historiography, American studies, and cultural studies, providing a vivid account of how to make sense of American history.
Ari Helo (PhD) is Senior University Lecturer in North American Studies at the University of Helsinki, Finland. Helos books and scholarly articles have been published in Britain, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, the Netherlands, Russia, and the United States, including Thomas Jeffersons Ethics and the Politics of Human Progress (2014).
History, Politics, and the American Past
Essays on Methodology
Ari Helo
History Politics and the American Past Essays on Methodology - image 1
First published 2020
by Routledge
52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017
and by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
2020 Taylor & Francis
The right of Ari Helo to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN: 978-0-367-86244-2 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-367-85766-0 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-01786-8 (ebk)
Typeset in Bembo
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
To my loved one, Niina Koskip
Contents
Guile
This book deals with historical methods and methodology. It is not a theoretical exercise aiming at a new theory of history or at any metaphysical insights of history. I am not a theorist, as working historians rarely are and rarely need be. But having spent my entire scholarly career in reading, writing, and teaching academic American history, I thought it worth the trouble to sum up the most essential theoretical views and practical rules that would help one to get the gist of what is important and what is less so in the American past and in history written of it. One way to interpret my position on all this is that we need less theory and more methodology. The thesis of the book is that there is a break between politics and writing history, and grasping this distinction saves us from a number of bad arguments and argumentationboth in politics and in historiography.
I have spent several years in doing research in early American history, which is why my medley of examples may appear a bit one-sided, often focusing on classic big names, such as Jefferson, Madison, and Lincoln, rather than on more recent historical figures and historical trends. But specific examples are less of our concern here than a sample of basic methodological points. As a Finnish Americanist, one might consider me an outsider, but thinking about American history is hardly dependent on the location where thinking occurs. I never found much difference between doing so in Helsinki or in Charlottesville, where I have also lived for several years.
It is a rare occasion that one writes a scholarly book without any help. With this book I received a lot of it. My biggest debt is owed to a magnificent historian and intellectual, Allan Megill, from the University of Virginia. He read practically the entire manuscript in its late phase in 2018. To those familiar with Megills own writings it is hardly surprising that his comments were sometimes harshly critical, but always helpful.
I also wish to express my deep gratitude to Peter Onuf, my old friend and tutor, whose help, once again, was of critical importance. Other important sparring partners in often heated debates on American history include Markku Henriksson, Pasi J. Kallio, Kalle Koistinen, Kenny Marotta, Patrick Miller, Jouko Nurmiainen, Keith Olson, Riika Paakkunainen, Jussi Pakkasvirta, Matti Peltonen, Petteri Pietikinen, Markku Roinila, Mikko Saikku, and Richard Schein. Most commentators heartily disagreed with some of my arguments but, as always with scholars, did not agree among themselves which ones are perhaps incorrect (and why). As always, the author alone carries the responsibility for the quality of the final product. Finally, I gratefully acknowledge the financial help for some editing costs of the manuscript from the Department of Cultures, University of Helsinki.
Ari Helo,
October 2019
This book is about distinguishing the discipline of history from politics. To illuminate this hugely important distinction, the book draws on a simple but methodologically helpful assumption about all historiography. The assumption is that our messy past should be kept distinct from history written of it. Historical thinking alone makes our collective past make any sense, even if it cannot make that past purposeful. We have no knowledge of any coherent rationale even for what we call by the grand title of world history. Nor is there any guarantee that studying history would help us solve our problems in the present. Aspects of the past that historians manage to reveal tend to be soon found somehow irrelevant, even if most often for reasons that have more to do with current social views than with the purpose of studying history. That purpose is seeking the truth about the past. Seeking truth, of course, is not equivalent to already knowing it.
When considering the notion of the past, it is important to notice that no matter how drastic the reforms we achieve, our past, comprising all of our laws, traditions, beliefs, and norms, refuses to completely fade away. People in the Western world, for example, still enjoy the fruits of the Wests imperialist past and its once ruthless exploitation of the rest of the world. In this sense one might speak of our long goodbye to the pastso long that waving farewell seems never to end. Nevertheless, distinguishing between the past and the history written about it would help us grasp most of the essential methodological issues related to history writing.
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