"It's the People Who Drive the Book": A View from the West

Abstract

MULTICULTURALISM IS NOT A SET OF EUPHEMISMS SUPERIMPOSED ON the historical record. It reclaims and interprets lived experiences heretofore excluded from the American mosaic. For many historians, national history ends at the eastern banks of the Mississippi River, and race relations encompasses the dyad of black and white. Multicultural history expands the boundaries in terms of peoples and regions. Yet, it is not a question of mix-and-stir history in which one makes what seems the appropriate nod to gender, ethnicity, or class. As Peggy Pascoe has written, history is much more than a matter of equal representation; when done well, it includes a careful analysis of multiple sets of power relations.' In Professor Higham's thoughtful iteration, two levels of concerns emerge: the self-conscious subjectivity of historians he allies with multiculturalism and the future of class as a historical construct. In addressing these issues, I should note that the movement toward greater self-disclosure is increasingly widespread throughout the humanities and cannot be considered the special domain of the multicultural movement. Furthermore, for many of us, part of our work as historians involves opening up the profession to people previously excluded and reclaiming experiences previously ignored. Or in the words of my