The Encounter with the New: A Brief History

16 Historically Speaking May/June 2008 Encountering the New: A Forum CHANGE AND ????????? RANK AMONG THE MORE address hegave in April 2007 at the National Councilfor History Education's anfundamental notions historiansgrapple with. Curiously, however, the historical literature dealing with them conceptually is relatively sparse. Theodore K Rabb, a historian of early modern Europe, explores one aspect of this important but neglectedsubject in thefollowing essay on Western attitudes towardencountering the new, adaptedfrom an nualmeeting. We ashedtwo schofars, historicalsociologistRicardo Duchesne and "big historian" David Christian, to respond, and as is ourpractice, we invited Rabb to drafta rejoinder. Thisforum was supportedby agrantfrom theJohn Templeton Foundation . The Encounter with the New: A Brief History Theodore K. Rabb We live in a time when we expect something new to enter our lives almost every day. Hardly have we become used to die miracle of the fax machine when we discover it has become obsolete. The only way we might be startled would be if, say, a gigantic hand were to come out of the sky to lift an astronaut off the surface of the moon while a booming voice announced the presence of God. Our expectations, in other words, look forward, not back; we think technology or fashion or some bright idea will constandy change the way we live, and will do so often. It must be a constant refrain of this aging generation to wonder what their parents would have made of the likes of the Internet, reality shows, the cell phone, and scores of other innovations of recent decades. It might be instructive, therefore, to reflect on the different attitudes to the new that have been characteristic of past cultures. Indeed, I would argue that one of the ways to define the distinct periods of the past is by the way they responded to the unknown. At some point, every culture encountered the new, and the way its people dealt with what was sometimes frightening, sometimes encouraging, offers a fascinating window into their world view. This is an investigation that could be directed at virtually every civilization; given my own specialization, however, I will focus on the West. One possible approach was laid out at the very start of the story, in antiquity. It is hard to imagine a people more attuned to the new, more excited by it, more devoted to its discovery, than the Greeks, and diey set a tone that resonated in many subseOdysseus and lrus fight one another. From Simon Schaidenreisser, Odyssee, das seind die aller zierlichsten..., 1538. Yale Collection of German Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. quent periods, at least of Western history. Ancient Greece was in many respects a society of the inquisitive . As one studies its history one is struck again and again by its people's curiosity. There was a restlessness about them, an aura of determined competitiveness among the individual city-states (symbolized by the Olympic Games) that repeatedly revealed itself as they sought a winning edge or tried to uncover something not seen or known before . It is significant that one of the central values of their society was the commitment to hospitality for strangers. They expected to meet strangers, and they always wanted to make them feel at home. One knows immediately how evil Cyclops is in The Odyssey because he quite dramatically fails this test. Not only is he not hospitable, but he tries to eat his guests. The contrast between Cyclops and the others whom Odysseus meets—who do make him feel welcome—underlines the central assumptions of his society. Because people were constandy on the move, they regularly encountered strangers; and since they were often strangers themselves, they expected such people to be treated well. Perhaps the most curious man in all of history was Aristode. He came across nothing that failed to prompt an inquiry about how things worked or where they fit into logical schemes. He had his say about the heavens, about forms of government , about falling bodies, about plants, and much more. Wandering on a beach, he noticed how many kinds of shells there were, and set about collecting them so as to understand how they might be organized into distinct categories...