Reflection by Caly McCarthy

I found Gaddis’ commentary on history as a tool of liberation to be the most significant part of his concluding chapter.  I find it compelling because it offers a “so what?” to the entire discipline of history.  Certainly history is interesting, but is it meaningful beyond the ivory tower?  According to Gaddis, it most definitely can be.

History is not a list of names and dates.  It is not merely chronology.  It often examines causality and implications – certainly more relevant, but significant?  I think that history is a powerful tool to challenge oppression, both subtle and overt.  When leaders harken back to a rosier past, historians have the capacity to break apart monoliths and represent a more nuanced understanding, speaking up for those who did not enjoy the projected past experience.  When those in power legitimize their harmful actions with the logic that “it’s always been this way,” historians can demonstrate that very little has “always been.”  This observation opens up space for different expressions of gender, beauty, family life, leadership styles, economic systems, etc.

Perhaps Gaddis says it best when he quips that “the sources of oppression are lodged in time and are not independent of time” (146).  Unlike the molecules that natural scientists are inclined to study, humans do not act in predictable manners.  Although this is frustrating to social scientists who seek clear causation to aid predictive models, this should be understood as a sign of hope; humans have the capacity change, and historians have the ability to help them recognize that.