Time as History by George Grant (review)

REVIEWS 79 The scholarlyethosof the universityenforces a certain styleof discourse, which presupposes the acceptance of liberal values.The useof this styleof discourse isenforced bya wholeseries of positive and negativesanctions - the mostunsubtleof which is the gradingsystem. From the comparativestudyof religionto the comparative studyof 'ideologies,' we studyall valuesdispassionately ,thatisto say,wemeanto breaktheholdtheyhave,or oncehad,on the humanspirit.All is subjectto scrutiny exceptthe spiritof scrutiny. Thus, for those whoaccepttheuniversities' styleof discourse, the diceare loadedagainst 'ideology,' against'mysticism,' againsttoo much politicalpassion. This is the realissue. Liberalismhasitsownwaysof enforcing itshegemony. Otherwise,it wouldhavebeengroundinto the dustlong ago.When Weber foughtfor the liberaluniversity, he wasfightingfor the practicaltriumph of a certain style of scientific expertise in a society sinking undertheweightof moralisticauthoritarianism .He wasnot fighting to createa glorifieddebatingsociety,as Roth argues.Liberalshave alwaysbelievedthat in the marketplaceof ideasevery romantic idiocywouldfall in thedust- onlyliberalism wouldbeleft. If liberals are to be lessambivalentabouttheir values,theymustfirst seewhat the real implications of their valuesare. Perhapsthen theywill regainthe militancy theyoncehad.If Weberisaninspiration tous,it isbecause wecouldnotimagine him shrinking from sucha task. JACQUES KORNBERG University o[ Toronto Time asHistory.Gv. oRoE O•NT. Toronto,CanadianBroadcasting Corporation, •97•. PP.x, 5•. $•.5o paper. The fivechapters of thisbookwereoriginallydeliveredover c•c radio in the fall of x969astheninthseries ofMassey Lectures. The first,havingmadeit clear that it isnothistory'asa study'whichis to be discussed, raises the question of 'whatit means to conceive theworldasan historical process, to conceive time ashistoryand man asan historical being.'The second seeks to 'enucleate' the conception of 'timeashistory,'especially asit hasdeveloped in the Westover the lasttwohundredyears,throughsuchnotions as'orientationto the future' and 'thewill to mastery.' The third considers somedestructive consequences of thisconception of lived time, astheywereworkedout by FriedrichNietzsche, the philosopher who 'thoughtthe conception of time as historymore comprehensively than any other modernthinker beforeor since.'In the fourth, attentionrufusto Nietzsche's attemptto find a more positivesortof response to the challenge of man'shistoricity than thoseof the two mostcharacteristic attitudesof our age: a banalliberalismand a daemonicnihilism.In a very shortfinalchapter,Nietzsche's solution - the deliberatecreationof newvalues in 'joy'and'loveof fate'- issomewhat abruptlyput asideon thegroundthat 'theconception of timeashistory isnot onein which... life canbe livedproperly .'What oursituation callsfor issaidratherto be 'remembering,' 'loving,' and 'thinking.' Professor Grant'sdiscussion of the verybroadissues whichhe raises isrich in 80 THE CANADIAN HISTORICAL REVIEW allusionand in trenchantcomment- as,for example,in his judgmentof the relativeprofundityandmodernityof Nietzscheand Marx, and hiswarningto Christians ofhowmuchofNietzsche's viewoftheworldtheytakeonin adopting hislanguage of 'values.'On a numberof fundamental, if familiar,assumptions of technological culturehe bothexpresses an appropriateconcern andevokes it. But the connections betweenthe ideaswhichhe expounds are generally very loose. And oftenenough he offersno argumentat all for the conclusions which hedraws.How 'remembering tradition'canbea pathto wisdom for menwho havehadthecourage - asProfessor Grantsays theyshould - to faceNietzsche's 'discovery' of therelativism of all values is simplyleft a mystery. The way in whichNietzsche's positive doctrines couldintelligibly ariseout of hisnegative ones issimilarly leftobscure, asisthecrucialconnection between 'remembering' and 'thinking'in Professor Grant'sownprescription for our spiritualills.Most puzzling to thisreviewer, however, ishisappropriation of termslike'historicity,' andeven'history,' withoutqualification or explanation, for an entirelyactivist, manipulative, future-regarding sortofhumanexperience. Very different existential andmoralpronouncements wouldsurely havebeencalledfor if the'history' in terms ofwhichtimeistobeinterpreted hadbeenthought of fromthebe•nningassomething whichgoes ontoa considerable extentovermen's heads, and whichit takesa greatdeal of hindsightto understand(Professor Grant'sbold claimthattheVietnamWar waspredictable looks itselflikea pieceofhistorical hindsight, although notobviously a reputable one,unsupported asit isby any account of humannatureor theoryof historical inquiry). Only onceisit mentionedthat historyis something 'suffered'aswell as'made'by men.Professor Grantdoes offerussome interesting reflections on thegenesis andimportance of somecontemporary attitudes to history.He canscarcely claim,however,to have discussed directly,and for its own sake,the question 'what it meansto conceive theworldasanhistorical process, to conceive timeashistory andman asan historical being.' W.H. DRAY Trent University HistoryasSocialScience. EditedbyDAVID $. LANDES, CHARLES TILLYjHOWARD F.CLINg, et al.,Englewood Cliffs,NJ, Prentice-Hall, I97i. Pp.viii, I5•. $5.95 cloth,$I.95 paper. The Historian and the Computer. EDWam> SHORT•.R. Englewood Cliffs,Nj, Prentice-Hall,I97I. Pp. x, I49. $5.95. The common message of thesestimulating books is that historians needmore rigorous training in social-science methods andtheories. TheLandes-Tilly volume ,HistoryasSocial Science, presents a wide-ranging discussion of theintellectual (andemotional) state ofthehistory profession, especially inthegraduate schools, and pinpoints currentneeds andfutureprospects of the behavioural approach inhistory. Shorter's book, TheHistorian...