Well put. ------ Robert Handy Brazoria County Historical Museum 100 East Cedar Angleton, Texas 77515 (409) 864-1208 museum_bob [log in to unmask] http://www.bchm.org ---------- From: Katherine Steiner Stocker[SMTP:[log in to unmask]] Sent: Thursday, August 27, 1998 9:11 AM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: civility or side stepping equity I passed along some of this discussion to a historian/librarian friend of mine, and I thought his comments were put quite well, and that you might be interested in them. > >My take on this has always been quite simple: it is the job of a >historian to put him/herself into the position of the subject under >study. That's how you make a living as a historian. That's what puts >bread on your table. Thus, you'd better be pretty good at it, or you'll >starve. > >Are there uniquenesses about every ethnic, gender, geographic, >linguistic, whatever you want to describe it as, group? Of course. Does >membership in that group give one an additional insight into the >experiences of another member of that group. Probably. (Although I'd >guarantee you that I have no particular insights into the lives of Mark >McGwire, Bill Clinton, the head of the National Weather Service, or any >of 38 other white American men who appeared on the news last night.) > >But, is membership in that group a necessity to gain an understanding of >the condition of another member of that group? Absolutely not. If that >were the case, we couldn't write ancient history anymore, since we >weren't there to immerse ourselves in it. > >You can, of course, carry this to its logical extreme. How unique must >an experience be before someone who didn't take part in that experience >can understand it? Can a European-American historian not understand the >lives of African-Americans? Or must it be a sub-group: African-American >life in the rural South during the 1950s? Or a sub-sub-group: >African-American life in Rockingham County, North Carolina in 1957? Or a >sub-sub-sub-group: John Smith's life at 346 S. Main St., Reidsville, NC >on August 17, 1957? > >Sorry, you caught one of my soap-box issues. I will quit complaining >about this with the line I always end this lecture with: > >It's been said that history is ultimately biography, and that may be >true. But that doesn't mean that history must ultimately be autobiography. > > >-- Katherine Steiner Stocker [log in to unmask] "If the world were a logical place, men would ride side-saddle." --Rita Mae Brown