<html><div style='background-color:'><DIV>Came upon an interesting bit from John Lukacs, in his book <EM>At the End of an Age </EM>(Yale 2002):</DIV>
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<DIV><FONT color=#0000ff>When I say that "I am a historian," what does this statement mean? What do people understand by it? Three hundred years ago they would have been unaccustomed to such a designation. Now their first, and most probable, association is: it is this man's occupation. Or, more precisely: it is his professional affiliation. "A historian"--so he is probably employed, in some institution of higher education.</FONT></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE>
<DIV>To which he appends:</DIV>
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<DIV><FONT color=#0000ff>This kind of association is of course part and parcel of the bureaucratization of entire societies. Yet there are historians who are not thus employed, who are not professors of history. They write history books on their own, which are published. When people know this, their inclination is to identify such a person as an amateur historian; but, more probably, as a <EM>writer.</EM></FONT></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT color=#0000ff>There is nothing very wrong with this. A historian who cannot write well cannot be much of a historian; moreover, the historian's instrument is everyday language, dependant on words that are more than the mere packaging of "facts." However, I must recount an amusing, and perhaps not altogether pleasing, experience during a coffee break at a scholarly conference where I had given a paper that was perhaps more fluent and easy than some of the others. I overheard someone answering a question about who I was: "He is a historian; but he is really a writer." There was something slightly depecratory in this statement. (Such is the professionalization of historianship now in the United States. There are other countries and other languages where, even now, such a statement would not be depecratory.)</FONT></DIV>
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<DIV dir=ltr><FONT color=#000000>It is interesting that the "bureaucratization" of society and "professionalization" of historianship that Lukacs describes here are earlier attributed by him to the same forces that drive the increasing militarization and consumerism of bourgois America. So it appears, according to Lukacs, that Dr. Gier and the progressives are in the same camp as Bush and the conservatives.</FONT></DIV>
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<DIV dir=ltr>Let that be the thought for the day.</DIV>
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<DIV>Jeremy Downey</DIV>
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<DIV>Ad ignem tractus, ab igne consumptus, ex igne renatus.</DIV></div><br clear=all><hr> <a href="http://g.msn.com/8HMBENUS/2743??PS=47575">Overwhelmed by debt? Find out how to ‘Dig Yourself Out of Debt’ from MSN Money.</a> </html>