What Happened to the Story in History?
Paul Revere races through the New England countryside warning of the British advance. Napoleon attempts to subdue Russia and loses an army of 600,000 men. Athenian culture hosted philosophies, sciences, and political innovations. These remarkable moments and developments in history helped shape future countries and civilizations. There are many such accounts from all over the world and in all eras. They excite the mind and stir the heart. Why, then, are so few students caught up in history? There are reasons.
Major textbook publishers have discarded the narrative, or story, of history. Their texts dole out historical events three paragraphs at a time and then immediately redirect the student’s attention to several pages of activities. Such fragmentation sacrifices both continuity and understanding. The student has no opportunity to become engrossed in an event, a movement, or a battle. If anything, he is persuaded that history occurred in spurts of stand-alone factoids.
Some of the fault lies with historians who claim that narrative accounts are, by definition, incomplete. There is truth in this argument. However, no historian wants to or can use all of the facts related to a subject. If his topic is Paul Revere’s ride, the historian will not care what the British soldiers ate for breakfast. Important to the story is that they did march, that their goal was to capture the arsenal of the colonists, and that Paul Revere, among others, perceived this as a threat and began his cross-country gallop. A reasonably complete and understandable story can be told without all the facts. What will make this historical narrative incomplete is a lack of description, analysis, and explanation, all of which are frequently sacrificed in the three paragraph presentation.
A recent concern of writers and publishers is that of being politically correct. In history it often means that all known groups—cultural, ethnic, religious, and political—are equally important in all events at all times and should be included in every narrative. This clutters history books with extraneous material that somehow has to be made to seem important. Neither the French nor the American Indians had any influence on Paul Revere’s ride, nor did his journey immediately affect them. Their stories can be developed in appropriate contexts.
Finally, the more radical historians claim that narration oversimplifies history or even distorts it by bringing actions or events together that were not seen as related by the original actors. Furthermore, they argue that because the past no longer exists, it cannot be resurrected with any assurance of truth. With the past forever gone, the best anyone can write is interesting fiction. If history cannot be reconstructed, is it any wonder that publishers perceive that activities about the past are better than the history?
How should these affect the choice of a history text? Teachers and administrators need not be at the mercy of either publisher or interest group. In evaluating a history book, look for a narrative in which the historian selected actions and occurrences, important and appropriate to his subject, and placed them into a logical time frame. Next, connections between people, their actions, and subsequent events must be explained to show and support the unity of the account. A good narrative will also attemp to understand events as did the individuals of the period and to explain their attitudes and actions.
When, after consideration, a suitable history textbook is found, compare the number of pages of text to the number of pages of activities. Then, read only the history pages. If each of these pages stands alone or is poorly connected with the others, look for another textbook.
To those who claim that writing history is akin to producing a work of fiction, Christians should remember that references to time past abound in Scripture. Jesus, himself, frequently quoted from the Old Testament. If history were fiction, the Lord’s referral to the past would be meaningless, an exercise in futility. Furthermore, many books of the Bible are books of history. They are narratives with a beginning, a middle, and an end. They have unity and a purpose. The history textbooks put before students should aspire to the same high standards.
Additional Reading
Carr, Edward H. What is History?New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 1963.
Dray, WilliamH. Philosophy of History, 2nd ed. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1993. Chapter 5 "The Nature and Role of Narrative"
Gilderhus, Mark T. History and Historians, 6th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2007.
Thompson, Willie. Postmodernism and History NY: Macmillan, 2004. Chapter 4 "Representation, Narrative and Employment," Chapter 6 "Representation and Relativism, Cognitive, and Moral."
Dr. Linda Hayner is Chairman of the Division of History and teaches Philosophy of History at Bob Jones University.