Postwar Reorientation of Historical Thinking

Abstract

ANY great disturbance in the world of action or of intellect produces very noticeable effects upon the methods and controlling thought patterns of historians. It is probable that the recent war will prove no exception and an intellectual reorientation may be anticipated. Such a reorientation will be the second within the memory of many living historians; both will have occurred in postwar periods. That which followed the First World War was ushered in on a flood tide of optimism and was unrealistic and confusinog. That which may be in the making is likely to be born in an atmosphere of wary disillusionment and may, because of this fact, more nearly vision the truth. Before considering the possible directions which the reorientation may take it is illuminating to look backward briefly, to recapture the atmosphere in which the historian entered his first postwar task some thirty years ago, and to see what paths he followed. At that time most historians shared with many public-spirited observers an enthusiasm and an optimism which nowadays arouses a certain nostalgia. All about there seemed to be such signs of progress. Democracy had triumphed, new governments of popular origin had risen in Europe in profusion. There was a vigorous hope of world organization in the form of the League of Nations. An air of a great moral triumph was pervasive, righteousness had conquered. So at this flood tide of optimism the historians undertook a great task. They would tell the truth about the war, apportion the blame ruthlessly. By intensive, vigorous work on the Kriegsc/uldlfrage, historians were going to cast aside prejudice and wartime emotion and reveal the truth immediately and regardless. Not only were they confident in their power and their methods but wealthy foundations were there to supply generous funds in aid. Yet it was at this flood tide of confidence and purposeful work that diverse and distorted trends began to appear or be magnified. The most striking phase of the reorientation after the First Worl(d War was the gradual development of a philosophy derived from implications of