Jerks in History

[Gene C]

(11-28-2013 08:58 AM)Rob Wick Wrote:  In an article in the October 1949 Partisan Review, the historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr., wrote an article called "The Causes of the Civil War: A Note on Historical Sentimentalism" which was a refutation of James G. Randall and Avery Craven and their "revisionist" views on the war. Schlesinger writes the following:

"An acceptance of the fact of moral responsibility does not license the historian to roam through the past ladling out individual praise and blame: such an attitude would ignore the fact that all individuals, including historians, are trapped in a web of circumstance which curtails their moral possibilities.

Considering he wrote this not long after the end of WWII and during the increasing tensions with Russia, not sure what he means, especially his last phrase..."trapped in a web of circumstance which curtails their moral possibilities ".

I'll play philosopher for a minute and say he's wrong, this is when your moral possibilities are at their greatest, but the web of circumstances increases the challenge to make the right moral decision. But that's life and how you grow into a better person.