Augustin Thierry: Social and Political Consciousness in the Evolution of a Historical Method by Rulon Nephi Smithson (review)

438 THE CANADIAN HISTORICAL REVIEW M. Mauro ismuchstronger whenit comes to theapplication of hismethodology tothestudy ofspecific (although verybroad)economic-historical problems. Thusthe chapteron European overseas expansion in earlymoderntimesoffers a carefuland systematic attemptto lay the basis for a qualitative. and thena quantitativemodelof the emergence of the nationaldivision of labourbetween the developingeconomies of the maritime powersand the colonialand semicolonialareasbroughtundertheirinfluence in theageof mercantile capitalism; it concludes with an exhortation for detailed and co-ordinated research in the historyof maritimetrade and price fluctuations in o.rderto givesubstance to such a model.Thispiece isfollowed bysimilarexploratory essays ontheanalysis of the economic structure of colonial and modern Brazil and the difficulties of constructing a quantitativeeconomic historyof Latin America. The finalsection, whichpresents theauthor's interpretations of suchquestions ascontinental integration, geographical mobilityof population, andurbanpredominance in the colonialera,isthemostrewarding.Mauro'sextensive knowledgeand deepunderstanding of thefieldenablehim to synthesize a greatdeal of recentresearch and to producea numberof originaland stimulating judgments ('Ce n'estpasl'argentdu Mexiqueoudu P•rouqui a provoqu•la pouss•e •conomiquedu i6e si•cle: c'estau contraire cette pouss•equi a entrain• la d•couverte et l'exploitation decetargent...') Nevertheless, it isa littlesurprising to find him utilizingRostow's 'stages of growth'theory(pp. I •, I I5), the irrelevance of which to Latin Americahassurelybeenamplydemonstrated by the workof GunderFrankand the various'dependency' theorists. D.L. RABY University o[ Toronto AugustinThierry: Socialand Political Consciousness in the Evolutionof a HistoricalMethod .RVX. ONNv. PH•SMITHSON. Genb. ve,LibrairieDroz, I973. Pp.3x7. In this rather belaboured volume we find a laudable effort to restore to. our attentionthe workand influence of a Frenchhistorianwhose namehaslongbeen submerged under the reputeof more famouscontemporaries, notablythat of Thierry'smosteffective rival,Jules Michelet. That AugustinThierry wasan importantfigurein the mounting interest in historywhich markedhisgeneration is easilyprovenbut that he wasthe instigatorof thismovement is not, thoughthe effortto do soismadeherein.The connection of the interestin historywith growingRomanticism, shownhere throughThierry'sadmiration of Sir WalterScottespecially, iswellargued. The authornotesthat Thierry'sclaimto be an objective historian, the claimmade by somanyothersin hisgeneration, is dubious. It is evident,asis suggested in thebook's subtitle, thathewrotehishistories tohelpfightcontemporary political and socialbattles,to win victories for 'liberty,' 'Constitutional monarchy,' the 'nation,' and the 'Third Estate'or the people,especially the 'bourgeoisie.' Enteringthe Frenchpoliticalarenaof the I82OS to I85OS with mediaeval historiessuchasthe Histoirede la conqugte de l'Angleterrepar lesNoraandsand theR[citsdestempsmdrovingiens asweapons mayseem curious to ourdayand agebut to thoseof the Romanticperiodit madesense. The revelation of Thierry's frenetic struggle to gainpublicrecognition in the REVIEWS 439 Academies andelsewhere through hisfriends in highposition indicates againhis politicalmotivation aswellaspersonal needfor openapproval, a needintensifieddoubtless by hiscrippling blindness. No, hisis not objective history and whatever contribution hemadetothatside of French historiography wasbyindirection , throughthearousing of interest in history, in thepastandthe uses thatcouldbemadeof it. Yet,in viewof Thierry's claimandtheauthor's concern with it, it seems curiousthat there is no discussion in thisbookof the fact thatthisisalsothegeneration of Leopold vonRanke,bornin thesame yearas Augustin Thierry.WasThierryunaware of thepushtowards objectivity in historiography beingmadejustacross the Germanborder? It isa pitythatanessentially interesting andvaluable scholarly enquiry should behandicapped bysoponderous andheavya styleof writing,onethatsmacks tooclearlyofthedoctoral dissertation. RICHARD 1•I. SAUNDERS Toronto The Dialectical Imagination:A Historyof theFrankfurtSchooland theInstituteof SocialResearch, •9•3-•95 o. M^RTXN J^¾. Toronto., Little, Brown,i973. Pp.xvii, 382.$4-75. Fromitsinception in r923,through enforced wandering in Europe andAmerica beforeaneventual returntoFrankfurtin 195 o,The Institutefor SocialResearch reveals importantaspects of the crisis and disintegration of classical Marxism. Membersand affiliates werealmostuniformlyradicalsons of upperbourgeois familiesof Jewish originwhose initiationintothe Mandarincultureof theGerman universities coincided with the triumphof the Sovietrevolution and historicistsociology . The consequent transformation of Marxisminto an official doctrineof a backwardsociety and the simultaneous f•dlureof the German revolutionisolated radicalintellectuals unwillingto adjustto Russian direction. At the sametime Weberand hiscolleagues beganthe systematic analysis of thoughtasa social product, immediately reducing to sociology all philosophical positions, includingMarx's,and thusundermining the Marxistclaimto understandandchange theworldfroma privileged position above ideology. 'Valuefree 'social science challenged thevalues oftheLeft; thebolshevization ofpolitics corrodedthe statusof its theory,limitedthe scope of its practice,and seemed in the I92OS to divideirrevocably theelements whose unitywasat theheartof Marxism.Theseweretheinstitute's pointsof departure. Work pursuedduringthe firstyearsunderCarl Griinberg's directorship was a blendof Marxistsocialresearch and politicalcommitment. Allied to Ryazanov 'sMarx-Engels Institutein Moscow, the institutewasfoundcongenial by Communist scholars likeFranzBorkenau andJulianGumperz. With theassumptionof thedirectorship by Max Horkheimerandthefoundingof theZeitschrift fiir Sozialforschung in r93o, the institutebegana critique of the 'scientific' Marxismof Engelsasinterpretedby the...