The Point of Vital Historiography

The point of this blog is to develop a vital centrist reading of history. By that, I mean a view of our national development focused on the wide swath between the center-left, center, and center-right of American thought. It:

1. Entirely rejects collectivism in its various forms
2. Entirely rejects conceptions of racial and ethnic superiority and purity
3. Entirely rejects the hunt for unfounded conspiracy
4. Entirely rejects unhistorical insertion of “Team A” and “Team B” on a garden variety number of issues

…as inimical to the American experience.

We’re pretty clearly in an American society of increasing division between the right and left. It’s not healthy; it’s not productive; there’s no ‘total win’ in the cards and there’s no way out of it. The most logical path is that we’re just going to get angrier and more bruised over time.

Every subsequent presidential is going to be “the most important election in our lifetime.” Terrible people are going to make more and more wealth by being increasingly edgy and divisive. Meanwhile, partial blindness will continue the trend of “it’s all on the other side.”

It’s time to reflect on what got us here. Notes are in the wiki at the top of the page.

Long story short, what I’m calling ‘vital historiography’ is basically an exercise in priorities:

1. Unity is better than division.
2. Development is better than decay.
3. Technological advancement is better than Ludditism.
4. Plain and sensible reading is better than unfounded hysterical interpretation.
5. Americanism is spirit, conviction, and purpose, not creed or birthplace.

This reading is going to naturally take a lot from whig and consensus historiography, but is stripped of know-nothingism and partisan apologetics.

Philosophically, I think the lynchpins are going to be:

• Alexander Hamilton in the late 18th century
• John Quincy Adams in the early 19th century
• Henry Clay and the National System economists in the antebellum years
• Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War era
• The Radical Republicans in the post Civil War years
• Theodore Roosevelt as the 19th century becomes the 20th
• Progressive Republicans and philosophical pragmatism in the early 20th century
• A blending of elements from both the Democratic and Republican parties in first half of the 20th century
• Dwight D Eisenhower and his cabinet in the mid 20th century, followed by John F. Kennedy
• A shift to independent and non-aligned politicians, economists, and philosophers as our political thought grew increasingly deranged