The significance of man is that he is insignificant and is aware of it.
Carl L. BeckerRead
All historical writing, even the most honest, is unconsciously subjective, since every age is bound, in spite of itself, to make the dead perform whatever tricks it finds necessary for its own peace of mind.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Historical writing is influenced by the present, making it subjective despite attempts at honesty.
This quote by Carl L. Becker suggests that all historical writing carries inherent subjectivity, as writers from any era project their contemporary views and needs onto the past. Even the most earnest historians are unable to escape this influence, as they unconsciously shape historical narratives to suit their own understanding and desires for comfort or validation, thereby turning the actions and intentions of the dead into something that aligns with the present.
Themes
HistorySubjectivityWritingPerspectiveNarrative
In practice
Example use cases
Referencing this quote in a lecture about historiography to discuss biases in historical narratives.
More from Carl L. Becker
All quotes →The value of history is, indeed, not scientific but moral: by liberalizing the mind, by deepening the sympathies, by fortifying the will, it enables us to control, not society, but ourselves - a much more important thing; it prepares us to live more humanely in the present and to meet rather than to foretell the future.
Carl L. BeckerRead
Similar quotes
The evil of slavery and colonialism was that these oppressions kept their victims out of history, disconnected them from the evolutionary struggle.
Shelby SteeleRead
We have a long, ugly history of white supremacy in this country, ranging from Jim Crow laws to keep African Americans down to the 1924 Immigration Act to keep non-Europeans out.
Max BootRead
The war for our Union, with all the constitutional issues which it settled, and all the military lessons which it gathered in, has throughout its dilatory length but one meaning in the eyes of history. It freed the country from the social plague which until then had made political development impossible in the United States. More and more, as the years pass, does the meaning stand forth as the sole meaning.
William JamesRead
We dare not forget that we are the heirs of that first revolution.
John F. KennedyRead
There comes a time in the life of every nation when it stands at the crossroads of history and must choose which way to go.
Lal Bahadur ShastriRead
History consists of a corpus ascertained facts. The facts are available to the historian in documents, inscriptions and so on, like fish in the fishmonger's slab. The historian collects them, takes them home, and cooks and serves them in whatever style appeals to him.
Edward Hallett CarrRead