What is History? by Edward Hallett Carr (review)

THE CANADIAN I-IISTORICAL REVIEW Febvrewages the battlein thesepages through a selection of essays, review articles, and commentaries, rangin in time of writin fromthe first earsof g g , y the centuryto the 1950's.They are arranged undersections: Geographes et historiens,Economies,Soei•t•s, Civilisations.Book reviewsare used as a means of settin forthhisideas onhistoryIt isinterestintonotethatFebvre's hi best g ß g g praise isawarded totheworks of Fernand Braudel, C. E. Labrousse, andGeorges Lefebvre,all of whomexplorehithertounplumbed avenues of humanactivity andexperience, andwhousemodern scientific means to doso,yet whoretain a keensense of humanwholeness andfreedom. Localhistoryis muchlauded as are historical studies in the realmsof folklore, technology, intellectual life, emotion,and feelin Febvre'sanal sesof the histo of suchtermsascivilization, g. y ry romanticism, humanism, andrenaissance areamong themost brilliant andoriginal partsofthework. The bookis long,in some waysunwieldy, andsuffers particularly fromthe lackof anindex.Nonetheless it is a valuable andfittingterminus to a lifelong Combat pourl'histoire. It is, moreover, an apt memorial to the memory of an historian whowonandwhoretains theundying respect of the wholehistorical profession. R•c•m• M. S•ttrm•EaS University of Toronto Whatis History? By EDWARD HALLETT CARR. London: Macmillan & Co.Ltd. [Toronto: The Macmillan Company of Canada Limited].1961.Pp.viii, 155. $4.5O. THECONTENTS OFTHIS SMALL VOLUME weredelivered earlyin 1961astheGeorge Macaulay Trevelyan Lectures at the University of Cambridge. In these sixleetures Mr. Carrhasnowprovided hispublicwitha commentary onhisapproach to thephilosophy of history. He is concerned among otherthings withthehistorian 'sobjectivi, his scoe and breadthof interest, and his relationship to ty p otherscholarship in hisownage.At the same timeMr. Carrairs,occasionally with wit, someof hispet peeves andcomes to the defence notablyof Hegel and Marx against criticslike Professor Popper.Yet mostof the pointsseemso obvious, andtheyaresofrequenfi andsosimply repeated, thatthereadermay Y feelmoreoftenbored thanchallenged. At thefewplaces whereMr. Carrappears onthevergeof a freshandpossibly important ideaheletsusdownwitha flip phrase, andfailsto exploit-what onewouldbe mostinterested to hear-his thought, forexample, about theblurring ofdivisions in time."Good historians," Cart suspect_s, "whether theythinkaboutit or not,havethe futurein their bones..-.. Onlythefuturecanprovide thekeyto theinterpretation of the past .... " Mr. Carr, the historian of the Russian revolution, hasperhaps thrownmore 2•htonhimself and hismethods than onthegeneral question ofthese leehires. e studyof theRussian revolution makes littlesense to himff thehistorian werenotfreeto judgeitstelos, itsprobable end.He is attracted, though not uneritieally, to thethought of HegelandMarx,andof otherpathfinders like Freud. Th'econscious conservatives, on the otherhand,fill him with a sense of horror andfutility. Only. withaimeulty isheabletosee howa conservative couldbe a competent historian. The historian withthe sense of thefuturein hisbones recognizes thatprogress comes notthrough smallchanges, but by majorchallenges andupheavals. He facestheworldin tm'moil optimistically mvmws 45 with confidence in the oodness of men's rational abilities and airns. Thus we havem essence a workmg historian s statement of beliefandvalues. Mr. Cart getsa gooddealoffhischest, andseems poised to launch furtherstudies of his chosen revolution. L•.wm University of Alberta America andtheWorldRevolution andOtherLectures. ByAIr,OLD J.TOY•BV.v.. New YorkandLondon:OxfordUniversity Press[Toronto: OxfordUniversity Press]. 1962.Pp.viii,231.$5.50. r•ns LXTrn•. BOOX is a collection of threeseries of lectures givenby Arnold Toynbee overthe pastyearor soin NorthAmerica. To judgefromthe notes onthe dustcover, the series thatthepublisher considers mostlikelyto attract attention is the one on America and the World Revolution. The other two are on The Present-Day Experiment in Western Civili•.ation andThe Economy of theWestem Hemisphere. Noneofthelectures aremuchabove thelevelof potboiling -though theToynbee potisalways 1/kely to havea good dealmoremeat init thanthose ofother popular lecturers. The series onwestern civilization isa repetition ofthefamiliar Toynbee comparison betweenthe Helleniccivilization whichoncedominated its world and ourmodemwestern civilization, withthefamiliarToynbee reflections onwhich typeof religion is mostlikelyto supplant or transform ourwestern world.The oneoneconomies isabout thepresent peasant revoltin LatinAmerica andwhat its demand for a share in the amenities of western civilization means for the UnitedStates. Herehedoes notprobe more deeply thanmany competent journalistshavealready done. In America andtheWorldRevolution theauthor appears asa Hebrewprophet or a European Thoreaudenouncing the affluence of Americaandits corruption by advertising. Hepoints out,rightly enough, thatthisaffluence haslostAmerica themoralleadership whichshefirstwonby theshotheardroundtheworldand hasisolated her in the position of a conservative minority. But he hardlyconsiderswhat wouldbecomeof the Americantechnological achievements from whichthe worldhasbenefited sogreatlyff Americans abandoned their drive towardsaffluence. Nor doeshe seemsufficiently conscious of the connection betweenAmericanaffluence and the abilityof Britishhistorians to write and publish ten-volume bestsellers. Fmtm• H. U•-nv, m-nLL Ottawa Canadian Les Canadiens d...