The Historical Present: Uses and Abuses of the Past

390 Pages·1997·0.91 MB·English

by  Edwin Yoder

The Historical Present : Uses and Abuses of
title:
the Past
author: Yoder, Edwin.
publisher: University Press of Mississippi
isbn10 | asin: 0878059857
print isbn13: 9780878059850
ebook isbn13: 9780585034034
language: English
United States--History--Philosophy, United
subject States--Historiography, Memory--Social
aspects--United States.
publication date: 1997
lcc: E175.9.Y63 1997eb
ddc: 973/.01
United States--History--Philosophy, United
subject: States--Historiography, Memory--Social
aspects--United States.
Page iii
The
Historical
Present
Uses and Abuses of the Past
Edwin M.Yoder
UNIVERSITY PRESS OF MISSISSIPPI / JACKSON
Page iv
Copyright © 1997 by Edwin M. Yoder
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
00 99 98 97 4 3 2 1
The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence
and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for
Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Yoder, Edwin
The historical present: uses and abuses of the past / Edwin M.Yoder
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-87805-985-7 (cloth : alk. paper)
I. United StatesHistoryPhilosophy. I. Title.
E175.9Y63 1997
973´.01dc21 96-52057
CIP
British Library Cataloging-in-Publication data available
Page v
In grateful memory of three exemplary teachers of history:
JAMES ROY CALDWELL, JR.
PHILIP MAYNARD WILLIAMS
SIR EDGAR TREVOR WILLIAMS
Page vii
Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction xi
Presidents and Other Americans
The Crimes of Christopher Columbus 3
Thomas Jefferson as Secular Saint 11
In the Shadow of Lincoln 19
Who Was Thaddeus Stevens? 27
The "How's the President Doing" Question 34
Martin Luther King's Moment 50
Constitutional Divinations
The Constitution after Two Centuries 59
A Good Word for the Framers 69
The Mysteries of "Original Intent" 76
Nationalism at the End of an Era
Historians and the Enola Gay Exhibit 87
Hitler and the Historians 97
Micronations and the Force of Nationalism 106
Yalta in History and Myth 113
New Thoughts about an Old Villain 119

Page viii
George F. Kennan and the Follies of History 125
Skeletons in the National Closet 131
Games Historians Play
Docudrama, Film and the Limits of Fabrication 137
Barbara Tuchman and the Horseshoe Nails of History 151
The Estrangement of Martin Luther 158
Church and State in Oxford 165
Faulkner, History and the Black Family 173
American Cities: The History of a Reputation 177
Epilogue: An Early Confederate History 185
Bibliography 195
Index 199
Page ix
Acknowledgments
When I first suggested this book to JoAnne Prichard, executive editor
of the University Press of Mississippi, I said that it would be a labor
of love. I meant that it would deal with a subject that has long
fascinated methat neglected crossroad where the past meets and
illuminates the present. The resulting manuscript then went through
several drafts, and I am grateful to Ms. Prichard, whose keen editorial
eye saw the makings of a coherent book in the fragmentary raw
materials I initially submitted. Her suggestions were invaluable.
As always, I owe a debt to my editors at The Washington Post Writers
GroupBill Dickinson, Alan Shearer and Anna Karavangelosand to a
number of editors of Book World over the years, especially Eve
Auchincloss, Bridgitte Weeks and the late Reid Beddow. I have
profited from conversations about many of the topics touched upon in
this book with my colleagues at Washington and Lee, especially John
Jennings, Holt Merchant and Hampden Smith III. As in the past, two
valued friends, John Maurice Evans and Jonathan Yardley, read and
commented on the manuscript. They spared me significant errors of
judgment, taste and style.
I have dedicated this book to the memory of three mentors in the field
of history. Jim Caldwell, known to many of his friends and colleagues
in the history department at the University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill as "Speck," was my freshman instructor in both parts of
the two-semester course in Western Civilization. It was from him,
along with my father, that I had the good fortune to contract my
earliest enthusiasm for the study of the past. I have