INTEREST

NEWSOF HISTORICAL
ALFRED ED~OR
J.ANDREA,

HISTORYAS STORY

History, both oral and written, has served many purposes and has
been presented in many different guises over the past three millennia. For
most ancient and medieval Jewish, Christian, and Muslim historians,
history was primarily the edifying record of the unfolding of Gods divine
plan for humanity within the confines of mundane space and time. In
essence, history was theology and theodicy. However, even though his-
tory was God-directed, it was human-driven. For classical Chinese, Hel-
lenic, and Roman students of the past, who functioned within essentially
secular traditions, history was moral philosophy. This was true of the
work of Ssu-ma Chien and Pan Ku, who studied how various dynasties
and Sons of Heaven merited and lost by the quality of their lives the man-
date to rule; it was equally true of the work of Thucydides and Sallust, who
explored the manner in which hubris, both personal and collective,
inevitablyled to destructive nemesis.
Both of these venerable ways of casting history-the past as a divinely
guided linear progression and the past as a teacher of practical moral les-
sons to the present-are still alive today but in greatly reduced measure.
They have lost ground to the many-faced reality of modern historiography:
history as social science, history as scientific socialism, history as collec-
tive national and ethnic myth, history as keystone of a humanistic edu-
cation in rational analysis, and history as so many other ways of relating
to the past and perceiving the world.
Whatever the use or abuse of history, what has remained true over the
ages is that history is a story, and any story that is not well told fails. To be
sure, history is a special type of story. C. Vann Woodward reminds us that
although good history necessitates good writing, good writing does not, of
and by itself, make good history. Unlike the pure literary artist, the historian
does not have the freedom to create the past. In recreating the past, however,
the historian is called upon to use the art and power of words to captivate
an audience. All the great writers and tellers of history, from the authors of
the early books of the Hebrew Bible to todays master historians, such as
Woodward, have understood this verity, and have acted accordingly.
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The putative parent of Western secular history, Herodotus of Halicar-

nassus, never forgot that he had a duty to entertain even as he edified. His
scientific objective was to uncover, preserve, and analyze the truth about
noteworthy human affairs, but his art demanded that he present his find-
ings and judgments in a manner that borrowed heavily from the tradi-
tions of Homeric epic poetry and Athenian drama. In so doing, he told a
good story; in fact, he told many good stories. The result was a classic of
history that continues to entertain and illuminate almost 2,500 years after
its composition.
The same is true of the work of so many other premodern historians.
Whatever their message and perspective, they presented their religious
and ethical interpretations of the past in story form-and what great
stories they were. Whether they were telling the heroically tragic story of
Saul, first king of the Israelites, or the almost incredible story of the brutal,
revolutionary reign of Chin Shih Huang Ti, first emperor of China, these
historians were ever mindful of the demands of their material and the
aesthetic expectations of their audiences. The matter of history, as far as
both historian and audience were concerned, centered on human actors
who propelled events forward by virtue of their strengths and weak-
nesses. This meant that each historical story had drama, action, and often
some sort of resolution.
As history has become more of a science over the past century and
has adopted many new, exciting, and fruitful modes of inquiry, some
practitioners of the craft have turned their backs upon historys narrative
traditions, often in reaction to what seemed to them to be the rhetorical
excesses of their predecessors. After all, if one wishes to study and present
the past as honestly and objectively as possible, then history has no room
for invented speeches, larger-than-lifeheroes, and stories with morals. As
true as this general sentiment may be, something important has been lost
in the process.
Those modem historians who ignore the proper and necessary rela-
tionship between substance and style in history tend to churn out un-
readable texts and learned monographs that alienate students and the
general reader from academic history. Contemporary emphasis on the
historians use of finely honed methods of analysis is proper and good,
but it cannot and must not obscure the fact that history is a story with
starting and turning points, as well as inherent human drama; historians
are still primarily storytellers. U.S. historians who have so eagerly and
profitably adopted the many new methods of the social sciences would do
well to adopt also the notion inherent in the Italian word storiu, which
simultaneously means history and story.
The astounding success of the recent television series m e Civil War
illustrates nicely the popular thirst for well-told historical stories. Here,
indeed, is a defining moment for the United States-its Trojan War, its
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Exodus, its latter-day crusade. The story contains all of the elements and
proportions of the worlds great epics. Like the Iliad, the Mahabharata, the
Book of Joshua, the Gesta Francorum, and numerous other historical, quasi-
historical, and pseudohistorical works of epic art, The Civil War con-
tained drama, tragedy, pathos, and heroism beyond the scope of most
human experiences. In retelling this story, Ken Burns effectively com-
municated the majestic sweep of his story, often adapting the devices of
oral epic poetry to bring home to his audience the grandeur and impor-
tance of these events; at the same time, he provided some solid history
lessons to an audience of millions.
Most who lecture or write on history will never reach the millions
touched by Ken Bums. These historians will not be heard or read even by
numbers equal to those who have followed the transformation of late
Roman society with Edward Gibbon, traveled to the American wilderness
with Francis Parkman, or sailed the Atlantic with Samuel Eliot Morison-
all brilliant storytellers. However, every historian, no matter how limited
the audience, has an important story to share, a story of human failures
and achievements in the human epic. As history, that story demands all of
the tellers research skills and judicious judgments; no less, it demands all
of the historians passion, art, and bardic skills.

Suggested Reading
Emily Morison Beck, ed., Sailor Historian: The Best of Samuel Eliot Morison
(Boston, 1977).See especially History as a Literary Art, 383-93.

Peter Gay, Style in History (New York, 1974).

Orville Prescott, ed., History as Literature (New York, 1970).

Theodore Roosevelt, History as Literature and Other Essays (New York, 1913).

C. Vann Woodward, The Fufure of the Past (New York, 1989). See especially
A Short History of American History, 315-21 and History and the
Third Culture, 322-36.

University of Vermont Alfred J. Andrea

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