Beyond the Sonderweg

Abstract

12 Historically Speaking ¦ November/December 2007 hensive inclusion. Thus would Abraham Lincoln take the necessary step thatJefferson found impossible to effect. Speaking prior to his presidency on the Dred Scott decision, Lincoln shone this light on the recurring dilemma: I think the audiors of that notable instrument [the Declaration of Independence] intended to include allmen, but tiiey did not intend to declare all men equal in all respects .... They did not mean to assert the obvious untruth that all were then actually enjoying that equality, nor yet that they were about to confer it immediately upon them. In fact, they had no power to confer such a boon. They meant simply to declare the right, so that the enforcement of it might follow as fast as circumstances should permit .12 Continuous? Perhaps not. But certainly sustained, ever resurgent, recoverable. 1 Ernest Gellner, Postmodernism, Reason, and Religion (Routledge, 1992), 71,77-79. ;Joan Gadol, Leon BattistaAlberti: UniversalMan of the Early Renaissance (University of Chicago Press, 1969), 70-71, 198-200. 1 See my article, "The Sixeteenth-Century Venetian Celebration of the Earth's Total Habitability: The Issue of the Fully Habitable World for Renaissance Europe,"Journalof World History 8 (1997): 1-27. * Anthony Pagden, Lords of allthe World: Ideologies of Empire in Spain, Britain, and France c. 1500- c.1800 (Yale University Press, 1995), 11-63; esp. 21-24. 5 HaroldJoseph Berman, Law andRevolution: The Formation of the Western LegalTradition (Harvard University Press, 1983), 199-254. ' Brian Tierney, "Religious Rights: An Historical Perspective" in John Witte,Jr. andJohn D. van der Vyver, eds., Religious Human Rights in GlobalPerspective: Religious Perspectives (Marrinus Nijhoff, 1996), 17-45; esp. 28-29. ' Francisco de Vitoria, Political Writings, eds. Anthony Pagden and Jeremy Lawrance (Cambridge University Press, 1991), 246. " Brian Tierney, The Idea of NaturalRights (William B. Eerdmans, 1997), 273, 286-87. * Hugo Grotius, Prolegomena to the Law of War and Peace (Liberal Arts Press, 1957), Sections 6, 16, and 11. 10Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, 1:13. 11PJ. Marshall and Glyndwr Williams, The GreatMap of Mankind: Perceptions of New Worlds in theAge of Enlightenment (Harvard University Press, 1982), 1. u The Speeches ofAbrahamLincoln, eds. Maureen Harrison and Steve Gilbert (Excellent Books, 2005), 40. Beyond the Sonderweg Sanjay Subrahmanyam John Headley, a well-known specialist of die thought of Martin Luther, Tommaso Campanella, and the ideology of the Spanish Empire, has lately turned to more general reflections within the larger realm of the history of "Western" ideas. Here he poses what appears at first to be a bold challenge . He tells us in effect that we—and he means not the world at large but only those who teach in Anglo-American history departments —have all fallen victim to a form of political correctness over the past couple of decades. (He does not seem currentiy to care what the rest of the world thinks or does in its practice of history: this is quite typical in its own fashion of his Sonderweg). We have apparendy lazily jettisoned three notions that are dear to Headley and his own historical horizon as he has maintained it inviolate over a half century: "the dignity of Western civilization "; the central importance once given to traditional political history; and the key role in history—or at least in the good bits of history— of the Renaissance. Mounting the pulpit provided by this forum, he wishes all of us to repent forthwith and fully rehabilitate all of the above. But before we do that, we must at the very least clearly identify what the real disease is against which Headley wants to inoculate us. It is undesirable rhetorical practice I believe to summon up one's minions for a fight to the death against intellectual Weapons of Mass Destruction that may not even "Entrance of Cortez into Mexico," ca. late 19th century. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division [reproduction number, LC-DIG-pga-01902]. exist. So where is the enemy and can we be sure that he (or it) even exists? The enemy for Headley, I think, is the vague program called world history, which has been gaining slow but sure ground over Western civilization in U.S. colleges and universities for quite...