American Historians on the European Past
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8024162 |
|---|---|
| Authors | David H Pinkney (corresponding author) |
| Year | 1981 |
| Volume | 86 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 1-20 |
| Publication date | 1981-02-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The American Historical Review (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0002-8762 • E-ISSN: 1937-5239 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1086/ahr/86.1.1 |
| OpenAlex | W2317016012 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 2 |
COLLECTIBLES whose vast accumulations became the nucleus of the British Museum, wrote on the flyleaf of his Natural History ofJamaica a verse from the Book of Daniel that is an appropriate preface to this essay."Many shall run to and fro," it read, "and knowledge shall be increased."Many American historians of Europe have run to and fro across the Atlantic in recent decades, and historical knowledge has indeed been increased.I am less certain that its quality matches its quantity.I made my first trip across the Atlantic in 1936, not yet as a historian but as a recent college graduate attracted to the study of modem European history by my college teacher, Frederick Artz.In Europe I was fascinated by the living presence of history that I had, until then, seen only in the reflection of other men's words.The rich evidence of Britain's and the Continent's past impressed on me more than any books the long course of European history, the immense complexity of its many interweaving national elements, and the strangeness of much of it to an American raised and educated in the Middle West.I recall asking myself in the autumn of 1936, when I entered graduate school at Harvard, if I should not tum from European history, which then loomed so formidably, to the history of the United States, to which I could bring the understanding of a native son.I did not make the change, and I have no regrets, for I have found European history endlessly fascinating.Yet the question has remained with me, not in a personal way but as a question for all Americans of my branch of the profession.Can Americans, making their careers in the United States or Canada,' be significantly productive historians of modem Europe or of any of its national states
Genealogy · Political science · American Constitutional Law and Politics · American History and Culture · Classics · Cuban History and Society · European Political History Analysis · History
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,08 |
| Citation span | 2013 - 2013 (1) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |