Local Historical Societies in the United States

LOCAL HISTORICAL SOCIETIES 263 (e.g., History, July, 1929, xiv, 121-3; July, 1931, xvi, 133-4). In addition to Mr. Jenkinsoh'sGuideto the materials for Surrey history, already noted, the seriesof Helps for students of history published by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, should not be forgotten. Some of these little volumes contain excellent guides to various classesof records, such as Professor Hamilton Thompson's essayon Parish historyand records. But, when all issaid,the problemswhich besetthe organizationof local historical study in England are very different from those which have to be met in Canada. They are rooted in a long, intense, and chaotictradition. Canadacanlearn mostfrom usby realizing the differencebetween Canadian and English conditionsand by trying to do what we seemnever to have had time to do--take stepsto anticipate and be ready for the problemsof the future. F. M. POWICKE LOCAL HISTORICAL SOCIETIES IN THE UNITED STATES HEcommon view oflocal history as aharmless pastime of eccentricspinsters,a private interest without dignity and without significance,is as wrong as many other commonviews. If antiquarianismis idle curiosityaboutpicturesque particularsin by-gonetimes, investigationmerely for the zestof the game,then local history is far more than antiquarianlsm. Woodrow Wilson once observedthat "Local history is the ultimate substanceof national history." It is more than that; it is the ultimate substanceof all history. For the understandingretrospectof life in one small valley will reveal the human group striving to devise effective means to meet its fundamental needs;as time goeson the group'schangingpracticesreflectand registerchangingconditions in the world at large. If a change decreedin somegreat capital or a change alleged to flow from some event or some development,do neither of them reachour valley, they are both by that degreeso much lessimportant. Exactly how a change affects a great people can be grasped best, and perhaps with surenessonly, by a careful study of local history, becauselocal history is the nearestapproachto ordinary individualsin all their social life. In the modernworld, certainly in America, few men are born great. They achieve their greatnessby identifying themselves with the localenvironment,and very likely with the localtradition. It wouldbe impossible to understandhowWashingtoncameto be 264 THE CANADIAN HISTORICAL'REVIEW Washingtonwithout someknowledgeof tidewater Virginia in the middle of the eighteenth century, or Lincoln Lincoln without picturingthe old life of Kentucky and Indiana. The firstchapter of mostbiographies is largelylocalhistory. If onewouldswiftly generalizeuponAmericanlife in any given epoch,he might do so with someconfidence on the basisof the early pagesin a fewscore biographies of the toweringfigureswhoflourishedsomeyearslater. Certainly what is calledsocialhistory, the historyof waysof life, cannot be written without assiduous study of local history. In these concernsthe historian must sensethe peculiar culture of eachsection in timespastbeforehe cantraceby what processes of syncretisma generalAmerican taste--appropriating the word Americanby customaryarrogance to the United States--hasbeen developed,and then he may discoverthat for better or for worse we have been agreed on but a few fundamental things. In differentplaceswordshave differingmeanings:in somelocalities temperancein intoxicating liquorshas meant a total abstinence, in othersa moderateand occasional indulgence, and in still others merely the conditionof beinglessdrunk; the "sphereof woman" hasvariedwith latitude andlongitude,and likewisethe observance of the Sabbath, the zeal for schools,the sufferanceof a family aristocracy,and many other matters. But political history too must do homage to local history. Representative government--and nearlyeverygovernment to-day comesmore or lessunder that category--proceedsupon instructionsfrom localities,and the will of the locality is baseduponits own experience. The federal government of the United States hasfascinatedhistoriansbecause it seemedto be the government of the Americanpeople. In recentyearsit hastendedto become such,but historicallyit hasreflectedor determinedthe individual's interest to a very limited degree. The suffrage,the guaranties to labour, the organization and control of business,roads and canals,the relations between church and state, education,crime and punishment, the mandates of the publicconscience in respect to liquor,lotteriesand sport,andotherconcerns of everycitizen are matters of state legislation; even the customs tariff, with its variousschedules, isreally a localissue. The Americanstatesare not unimportant subdivisionsof the world. It would take three Denmarksto comparewith Pennsylvania in sizeor population; CaliforniaoutstripsNorwayaccording to thesestandards, without considering the disparityin wealth; New York rankswith Canada; thereare morepeoplein Ohiothan in Australia;andsoon. If the LOCAL HISTORICAL SOCIETIES 265 time-span of their historiesis short, the processof commingling stocks of divers...