A2 HISTORY: DIFFERENT

AMERICAN WESTS

INTRODUCTION TO
HISTORIOGRAPHY
 Introduction to Historical Controversies

Why does historical controversy arise?

 The historian’s personal view of society and the past

 The influence of the present social/ political/ cultural climate on the historian
 The historical method used by the historian (e.g. reconstructive, analytical)
 The historical approach of the historian n(e.g. Marxist, feminist, cultural)
 The different types of evidence used and how they have been interpreted by the historian
 Incomplete/ contradictory evidence
 The questions asked by the historian

Historical evidence

The problem that every historian confronts is that the evidence they rely on is likely to be fragmentary,
incomplete or contradictory. As a result, each historian’s conclusions are influenced by the evidence they
have selected from what is available and how they have interpreted that evidence.

Each generation of historian has access to a different range of evidence – some existing evidence may have
been lost and some new evidence may have been discovered. This means that historians will never know
everything that happened in the past.

Historical questions and approaches

Historians approach evidence with their own agenda: they don’t all ask the same questions of the same
evidence. For example, a gender historian will ask different questions on the evidence for witch – hunting
in early modern Europe than a religious historian, because they are looking for different things.

Their approach to the evidence is also influenced by who the historian is as a person – i.e. their gender,
ethnicity, religion, political beliefs – and by the age in which they live.

Examples of historical approaches:

 Political
 Social
 Economic
 Cultural
 Gender
 Local
 Comparative
 Total
 Class relations
 History ‘from above’/ ‘from below’
 History of mentalities

All historians want to make sense of the past but, because life in the past was so complex, they often try to
simplify things by categorising the past artificially (e.g. it was a 19thC Danish museum curator who
‘invented’ the terms Stone/ Bronze/ Iron Age to help him sort out his ancient artefacts).

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The periods in which the history of Western Europe has been divided have also been invented for the
convenience of historians – e.g. stating that the ‘medieval’ period ended at Bosworth Hill (the death of
Richard III and the beginning of the Tudor Age) is a gross over – simplification, but helps give some shape
to the otherwise amorphous past.

Dividing the past into centuries is problematic, as ‘ages’ often straddle these time divisions:
 Were the late 1490s (medieval) really so different from the early 1500s (early modern)?
 Some historians would say that the 19thC really began in 1793 and that the 20thC didn’t start until
1914
 Was 1991 (ending of communism) more of a turning point than 2000?

Historians also label the peoples of the past, as well as the periods – e.g. ‘peasant’, ‘radicals’ or
‘Protestants’. However, this suggests that all people in that group had the same outlook, values or life
experiences, when that plainly will not be true.

Whig History

This term is often used to denote a triumphalist view of the past, linked to the notion of progress. It
developed in Britain in the 19th century, and is linked with historians such as Macauley.

‘Whig’ comes from the term ‘whiggamore’, who were Protestant supporters of William and Mary during
the ‘Glorious Revolution’ (1688).

This view of history celebrates the creation of the institutions of modern Britain (e.g. parliamentary
democracy, the rule of law, constitutional monarchy) through a series of struggles and triumphs over time.
This way of looking at the past was influenced by Darwin’s Evolution of Species.

Whig historians would see the English Civil War and its aftermath as part of a heroic struggle for political
and religious liberty, whereas more recent historians would see it as a desperate attempt by the old rural
elite to restore their former status.

The Whig view of history has also been adopted by some historians of the American West, who see the
‘conquest’ of the West by white Americans as part of the country’s ‘Manifest Destiny’.

What is History?

G. R. Elton (leading Tudor historian of 1950s/60s; uncle of Ben):

A search for truth

Keith Jenkins (leading historian on belief and superstition in early modern England):
A collection of views about the past

‘History’ could be said to be simply historiography = the history of history writing

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Historians encounter, analyse and revise the interpretations of their predecessors, which build up like
layers of sediment:

The present
‘Counter –revisionist’ interpretations
‘Revisionist’ interpretations
Traditional/ orthodox interpretations of those
events
The past (i.e. the actual events)

Historical interpretations

Postmodern theorists would say that to attempt to search for objective truth about the past in misguided
(we can’t know what happened in the past because we don’t have the same mind-set/ mentality as those
who lived through it), and historians should instead focus on the process by which written history is
created.

Medieval historians said that God caused everything. However, after the Enlightenment (late 18thC),
‘reason’ replaced superstition and so new explanations for why things happened had to be found. There
are two real alternatives:
1. Everything is the product of chance/ random circumstance
2. Create new determinist theories (i.e. historical events are predetermined by certain forces)

A.J.P Taylor (historian of the Second World War) would agree with the first alternative. He famously stated
that history is simply a series of accidents and blunders.

Others find theoretical explanations for events dangerous and/ or misleading, because they remove the
power of human agency and can allow individuals to avoid blame for the consequences of their actions
(e.g. saying the Holocaust was caused by the popularity of ‘Social Darwinism’ in post – WWI Europe
absolves Hitler of any censure).

It is also undeniable that chance plays some role in history – e.g. natural disasters (the Icelandic volcano
Eyjafjallajökull that erupted in the 1780s led to a series of bad harvests that caused high bread prices and,
eventually, the French Revolution) or epidemic diseases (the Black Death led to a shortage of labour in
England, which meant that the survivors could charge a higher rate for their work, and eventually to the
end of feudalism).

Examples of deterministic theories of history:

1. Intentionalist = history is driven by human agency (e.g. Hugh Trevor – Roper would argue that WWII
was the result of Hitler’s master – plan as set out in ‘Mein Kampf’)
2. Structuralist = history is the result of ‘base structures’, such as the economy or the environment;
above these are ‘super – structures’ such ideas/ institutions/ events

Historical determinism

Whilst 19thC historians would say that history is shaped by ‘great men’ (e.g. kings and prime ministers),
many modern historians tend to look instead for the (non – human) dynamic forces that have shaped
history, the underlying trends/ structures.

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Examples:
1. Marxism
2. Frederick Jackson Turner’s ‘Frontier Thesis’ of American history

Marxism:
This is the most influential deterministic theory of history. Marx argued that the force that leads to all
historical change is the struggle between social classes. This struggle is caused by an unequal economic
relationship between two classes. Eventually, the oppressed class (the proletariat – industrial working
class) will rise up against the oppressing class (the bourgeoisie – the owners of the means of production)
and usher in a communist society. This would mark the ‘end of history’, as there would be no more
struggles in a classless society.

Marx and Engels identified 3 stages through which all human societies must pass before they develop a
communist economic structure and therefore end class conflict:
 Stage 1: Ancient (slave – driven economies; e.g. Rome)
 Stage 2: Feudal (lord and serf system of obligations tied to land)
 Stage 3: Bourgeois (modern capitalist economy)
Communism would emerge from the overthrowing of the capitalist system and the destruction of the
concept of class by giving producers communal ownership of everything they produced; until this stage,
the mode of productions was bound to lead to conflict. Marx, therefore, challenged the view that the
ideas/ actions of men and women shaped their destinies.

Turner’s Frontier Thesis:

The drive to extend the frontier of white settlement was the underlying cause of America’s expansion into
the west during the 19thC (e.g. it wasn’t the result of a decision taken by the government or by individuals’
groups)

Both these interpretations are examples of a ‘metanarrative’ – a text/ principle/ myth used by a society to
explain its past and present, to help unite that society in a common purpose. Examples of metanarratives
are the Bible, the Communist Manifesto and witchcraft.

In recent years, Marxist interpretations have fallen out of favour, following the collapse of the USSR, as
well as increasing living standards in Western countries, meaning that ‘class conflict’ is seen as no longer
relevant.

Modern historians are also much less convinced that history is the story of human progress. For example,
Whig historians would have seen the Renaissance and Reformation (which replaced feudalism and
superstition) as marking the start of a lasting period of progress. However, modern historians would point
out that there were a series of crises during the 17thC that arguably led to a period of stagnation/
regression (e.g. the Thirty Years’ war; the English Civil War).

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 Introduction to Different American Wests

What is the ‘West’?

One of the first issues to think about when studying the American West is ‘what is “the West”?’. For example, does it
start at the Mississippi River or the Rocky Mountains? Does it include the Pacific coast? At the start of the 19thC, the
‘West’ was anywhere beyond the Appalachian Mountains. However, few Americans would recognise this definition
today.

What is the ‘Frontier’?

Another issue to confront is the concept of the ‘Frontier’. In one sense, the ‘Frontier’ is a geographical term – it
refers to the dividing line between land which has been settled by Americans and that which has not. However,
Frederick Jackson Turner defined it as a meeting – point between civilisation and savagery, which inevitably led to
conflict and conquest. Others see it as a place where cultures met and assimilated peacefully, leading to a new multi
– layered culture.

What explanations are there for westward expansion during the 19th century?

Empirical approach:
 Westward expansion motivated by the mass migration of European settlers
 Part of the mid – Victorian urge to explore/ discover new lands (e.g. British Empire)
 Result of individual action
 Stresses the role of ‘heroic’ individuals such as Daniel Boone and ‘Buffalo Bill’ Cody

Psychological approach:
 The urge to move westwards was not to do with the actions of governments or corporations, but resulted
from the basic human desire for change, novelty, freedom etc.
 This was especially pronounced in the American spirit, which is permanently restless

‘Manifest Destiny’:
 US institutions (such as the government) or individuals (President James K. Polk) generated the will to move
west in order to fulfil America’s destiny to oversee all of the territory between the Atlantic and Pacific coasts

‘Top – down’ approach:

 The mechanics of establishing a US presence in the West was a political process, druiven by the federal
government
 Example: Indian Removal Act 1830
 Example: Oregon treaty (agreement with Great Britain)
 Example: Homestead Act 1862

Other factors:
 Discovery of minerals
 The West was a ‘safety – valve’ for the industrial East
 The American Civil war

HISTORIOGRAPHY - OVERVIEW

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Schools of Historiography View on View on Role of Methods of Creating History
Sources History
HISTORICIST (LATE C19TH) FREE WILL POSITIVISM
A scientific approach to history pioneered by von People in the past were Embraces human agency in history.

should be used
Sources can ad

to reconstruct
Ranke/ Based on the objective study of primary in full control of their Uses sources to provide and accurate
sources. Believed that the study of such sources own destinies – lessons and complete vision of the past. Also

the past.
would allow a reconstruction of history “wie es can be drawn embraces and empathetic approach
eigentlich gewesen ist” – as it actually was. towards people in the past.

ACCIDENTALIST CHAOS THEORY NARRATIVE - CHRONOLOGY

Believe that accidents are the driving force of Lessons cannot be drawn The creation of narratives of the past
historical change: a mosquito bite prevented Trotsky from the past as there is – analysis plays less role as the role of
being fit enough to seize control of the USSR; a no path to history accidents is most important. AJP
change in wind direction prevented the Spanish Taylor used this approach in series on
Armada from arriving in England etc. Russia.

INTENTIONALIST TELOLOGY BIOGRAPHY - HAGIOGRAPHY

Intentions and personalities of key individuals drive Lessons can be drawn The “Great Men” method which
historical change eg. Hitler’s master plan created from history because it creates chronological narratives.
and caused the Holocaust has a path which we can Often look at the agency of one
Use of sources not the main focus – more of a focus on why things happened rather than what happened

choose to follow or individual in history.

HEGELIAN change DIALECTICS - ANALYSIS
Intellectual movements and the progress of ideas are Theses are created which become
the driving force in historical change. Hegel saw orthodoxies. New theses then arrive
history as a constant progression towards true to challenge these – revisionism – and
freedom. Studies of ideas such as the Renaissance are a synthesis is produced from the old
often Hegelian in character. and the new. The synthesis becomes
the new thesis or paradigm and the
MARXIST process of clashes (dialectics) repeats.
Economic forces are the main driving force in
historical change. Karl Marx relied heavily upon
statistical data to show that exploitation and class
conflict drove history. Eg. Studies of the Peasants’
Revolt which focus on prices of bread and declining
wages.

STRUCTURALIST DETERMINISM META-NARRATIVE – TOTAL

Political and military structures are the main driving Lessons cannot be drawn HISTORY
force of historical change. Also known as a from history because it Works of the Annales school are
functionalist position. Eg. The city states of the has a path which cannot characterised by a multi-layered
Italian Renaissance and the absence of Church be changed approach which seek to integrate
allowed the Renaissance to flourish.
long-term, mid term and short term
factors in a “total history”. There is an
ANNALES effort to explain large amounts of
Named after Annales d'histoire économique et human history through the
socialeand pioneered by historians such as Lucien application of theory and social
Febvre and Marc Bloch. Heavy use of social sciences sciences. Comparative studies of
in historiacal explanation rather than looking at similar events in disparate places
political structures etc. A downplaying of short term
events and a focus on the longue duree. Belief that
environment and culture shape history over the long
term and that history defies categorisation. Eg. A
long term study of the belief that the kings of France
could cure Scrofula.

POSTMODERNIST (LATE C20TH) PHILOLOGY NEGATIVISM

Foucault argued that all historical sources are
Sources cannot

The study of language is Rejects human agency in historical

reconstructing

biased, incomplete and that the language has no used to pull apart texts to affairs. Rejects all sources. Rejects the
be used in

fixed meaning. He therefore suggested that the past highlight ambiguities – no possibility of empathetic
the past.

was unknowable. A belief that all interpretations of lessons understanding of the past.
history are equally valid…

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Schools of American West History
Turnerian
First Phase: 1890 – 1920 Second Phase: 1920 – 1960 Third Phase: 1960 – Present New Western history
 Frederick Jackson Turner –  The 1920s saw the second  Began to focus more on  Patricia Limerick: “The Legacy of Conquest:
“The Significance of the phase of Turnerian models issues of race, class, gender The Unbroken Past of the American West”
Frontier in American begin to be employed. and environment. (1987)
History” 1893  Historians retained the idea  Began to show no-Marxist  Main theme of American history was not the
 “Frontier Thesis” The whole that the frontier was tendancies to tell the story struggle at the frontier but the ongoing
American experience was important but began to add of the West as a conflict conquest by White settlers.
defined by the advancing new processes of study for between classes and  No clear consensus on what is meant by a
frontier westward. The example urbanisation. imperialists. New Western History
American character is  Beginning of questions  Many challenged the  Definiton of the West as a a place – the area
shaped by the battle being asked about the Turnerian interpretation west of the hundredth meridian.
between savagery and Turnerian model. Many however many were  Do not accept the concept of frontier or that
civilisation at the frontier. began to look at more producing micro histories of it had a start and end date. Talk more in terms
 The Frontier according to regional studies of the West the West and therefore no of colonisation, conquest, exploitation and
Turner was finished by and questioned the notion grand theories were coming development as shaping the western area of
1890. that the frontier might have to the fore. America.
 Turner’s front shaped the had such a large and  Begin to start to develop  Elimination of the “progress” narrative which
people of the West and formative impact on people. new theses. stigmatised the history of the West.
defined the American drive  People also questioned how  Richard White: “The Roots  Criticised by Gerald Nash who said that the
to succeed, fuelled the the 20th Century West of Dependency: Subsistence, New Wastern Historians were motivated by a
American Dream and so should be treated. Environment and Societal totalitarian, leftist agenda to show the horrors
on... Change Among the of White Anglo Saxons and their crimes
 Would go on to dominate all Choctaws, Pawnees and against the land and people of the Americas.
textbooks on the West until Navajos” (1983)  Others noted the heavy anti-capitalist bias
the1960s  William Cronon: “Changes in and deliberate iconoclasm.
the Land” (1985)  Many also accused of presentism – applying
contemporary concerns to the actions of
those in the past be it Native Americans,
environment issues or gender. Notion that we
should learn from the past.

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Overview of Differing Interpretations on Key Topics in the American West
Key Topic Old Western Interpretation New Western Interpretation Other Interpretations?
Why did the Native  Natives were occupying key land needed for  Natives did not understand the processes by which  Micro histories looked
Americans and the US Westward expansion. Whites attempted to claim the land. at individual cases of
army come into  Natives often caused problems to travellers and  Natives were duped and lied to and were subdued conflict – lots written
conflict? What were therefore needed to be moved both for the safety by an aggressive army connected to an on Wounded Knee and
the consequences? of pioneers and themselves. expansionist and racially motivated government. Little Bighorn. Natives
 Army was instrumental in protecting pioneers from  Natives were not recognised as having a culture in this sense in the
Natives and therefore its presence in the West was and therefore not seen as “human” in the same wrong place at the
necessary. way. wrong time
 “Indian Problem” removed – some apology for this  Native culture survives –wrong to portray them as
in later work. simply victims
Who were the settlers  Early pioneers “blazed a trail” this included  Settlers were a rag bag of immigrants, farmers,  Feminist histories in
and what were their caricature trappers, gold miners with a thirst for slaves, Hispanics, criminals, women and others particular look at
motives for moving profit and cattle ranchers seeing opportunity. who were both pushed and pulled East depending women being dragged
west?  Settlers were a nation of farmers who set out to on their individual circumstances. West by their
seek an idyllic life farming in the West following in  Few people came from the cities. Many in fact husbands,
the footsteps of the early pioneers. travelled into them. demonstrating the
 West was a pressure release valve for overcrowded  Big business and government drove a lot of people power relations of the
cities in the East, people left the cities, were Westward by providing vast amounts of support time.
reformed by the journey west and became which settlers could draw on.
Americans.  Many were escaping old lives and hoping for better
 Big business followed the popular settlements and profits.
eventually began to “ruin” the West.

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Key Topic Old Western Interpretation New Western Interpretation Other Interpretations?
What role did Native  Natives were another geographical obstacle to be  Natives have a rich and diverse history and culture  Early romantic
Americans play in the overcome, nothing more. stretching back well before the European chapter interpretations saw the
West? What was their and continuing to the present. Natives as primitive but
culture like?  Natives were one of a group of different settlers important
who have come the Americas. representations of
 Native culture was not homogeneous but rather “true nature”. They
varied from tribe to tribe and went beyond the were equated with the
geographical boundaries of North America. animals and general
landscape
 Micro histories tended
to focus on native
rituals and puberty
rites. Avatar!!!
What contribution did  Women played almost no major role in the West  Women have a much greater and more varied role  Feminist historians
women make to the other than as prostitutes, trappers’ “Indian wives”, in Western history. stress the importance
West? missionaries, moralisers who held on to their  Women helped to keep their Eastern culture and of the roles done by
Eastern ways or deviants sent to pull men astray. traditions alive in difficult circumstances. women and show the
 Took on many traditionally male roles during the male roles taken on by
journey but quickly reverted back once reaching them. They also
the West. identify them as having
 Were shaped by their interactions with other been brought to the
cultural groups on journeys Westward, helped to West against their will.
create a new type of culture.
 Influential in winning voting rights and moving
politics forwards.
 A greater focus on the roles played by minority
women – Chinese prostitutes etc.

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Key Topic Old Western Interpretation New Western Interpretation Other Interpretations?
Were the American  The frontier is the process which creates American  Frontier is too simplistic – frontiers is more 
frontier and systems. The presence of an area of free land and accurate as there are more than one existing
American democracy the nature of that land creates the conditions concurrently at any one time.
unique? Was 1890 required for change and the constantly Westward  Frontier is not unique as it is just an extension of
really the end of an moving frontier evolves the European “germ” into the European frontier. Others exist in other
era? the American one. By 1890, the population along countries eg. India, Canada, South America etc.
the frontier removes the variable of free land.  Frontier does not create the American character as
for the most part Eastern culture is simply
transplanted, the changes can be explained by
cultural integration.
 No end to the frontier either seeing as a
geographical area or looking at the approach of a
Mexican frontier moving Northwards today.
How important were  Federal government followed where the people of  Federal government drove the Westward 
the roles of the the US led them. Their only real role was in movement but made it appear to be a popular one.
federal government, creating the initial purchase of Louisiana and  Initially involved in looking for profit but later
business and industry sponsoring the Lewis-Clark expedition. became a tool for controlling Congress over the
in the West?  Manifest Destiny encouraged those travelling slavery issues.
Westward that they were in the right.  Manifest Destiny allowed the assertion of cultural
 Industry moved in after the frontier and destroyed dominance and the excuse to remove problematic
the ideal societies being created. rivals such as Britain and Mexico from the
continent.
 Treaties with Natives allowed the government to
seize greater amounts of land but settlement
enthusiasm lagged behind, hence the need for
incentives such as the Homestead Act.
 Demand for commodities encouraged businesses
to expand Westwards pulling a workforce with
them and encouraging Western dominance.
 Desire to increase power of central government
meant a longer control of territories and the
appointment of corrupt and business oriented
officials. Gave the US president greater powers
than ever to interfere at a state level.

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Key Topic Old Western Interpretation New Western Interpretation Other Interpretations?
How far was  “Rugged Individuals” built the West through  Families were massively important units. Until the 
individualism the key pioneering spirit and sheer grit and determination. homesteaders arrived no-one really settled the
to success or were Many examples such as the Pony Express or the West for extended periods of time.
communities typical “cowboy” character. Even the 49er was an  Group and communal action allowed people to
important? example of someone making their fortune off their travel to the West in the first place.
own back.  Many of the original “pioneers” were broken by
the demands of operating solo in the West.
What kind of society  A “brand new” America created in the West built  The society in the West was essentially 
was established in the by the environmental conditions and the European transplanted into the East – architecture, political
West? Was it a “new” Germ evolving. and social structures, religion, values were all
society?  Communities began basic but quickly began to transplanted.
grow and develop.  Non-conformist views such as those of the
 Democracy developed through hard fought trial Mormons were crushed to make way for the
and error. European hegemony.
 Law and order eventually developed thanks to hard  The multi-ethnic nature of the new society was
work. played down.

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 A Basic Timeline of American West Historiography

Pre 1890 1890 1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000+
Early romantic interpretations based on ideas of the West as a ideal of
America. Wilderness an important element, an area of savage nature to be
Romantic

“tamed”
After the Depression of the 1930s the West comes to symbolise something pure from the past. Here the romanticism centres on the
“nation of farmers” concept & rugged individualism. Now white western culture is as much part of the romanticism as the “wilderness”.

Turnerian histories based on Turner’s thesis stress the impact

of landscape and inherent Anglo-Saxon characteristics in
explaining the westward expansion. Germ theory which explain
the development and break from Europe to create an unique
America.
For Hollywood Turner’s ideas now become the
bedrock of a love affair with the Western.
Turnerian ideas are brought to the masses.
Germ theory and individualism win the day.
Billington and the pro-Turner school return to Turnerian ideas after victory in WW2 – a more buoyant
mood meant a triumphant West was popular again. Engaging stories of “rugged individuals” make this
“Old Western”

an enduring interpretation – especially for the film industry.

Increasing focus on previously neglected groups such as natives or women leads to an
explosion in “micro-histories”. Many approaches for example see the plight of the
Native Americans across the history of the West. For the most part however, these still
see their topics in terms of Turner’s frontier – especially true of early feminist studies
which follow almost the same “grand theory”. Others lack a “grand theory” at all and
don’t seek to explain the American West.

Turner’s theories are widely discredited after they are published. Historians
such as Pierson heavily criticise Turner’s vague use of evidence and try to show
that frontier as a process is nowhere near as neat as Turner himself has
suggested. This is spurred on by a general feeling that America is in a bad place
due to the Depression of the 1930s – Turner’s West was not the Zion America
had been hoping for.
A disparate group of people begin rewriting Western history
without reference to a single, all powerful frontier element. It
is suggested that frontier might not be unique, more an
extension of colonialism. Questions raised over concept of
“free land” and its implicit dismissal of Native Americans
Economic historians such as North begin to look at how
Westward expansion can be explained by economic means –
Marxist historians also take this approach.
New Western History seeks to bring together many of
Revisionist

the micro histories and revisions of Turner and begin

the process of redefining and re-examining the West
for a new age. Often accused of not bringing anything
“new” to the table and, due to a wide range of cross-
disciplinary work, of not writing “history”.
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 Queen Elizabeth I

Elizabeth I faced more difficulties as a monarch than any other Tudor. Born the daughter of Henry VIII and Anne
Boleyn on 7 September 1533, Elizabeth’s right to rule as queen of England never went unchallenged. Protestants
(notably john Knox) initially claimed female rule was unnatural or monstrous, while Roman Catholics judged
Elizabeth as a bustard since they refused to recognise her father’s marriage to her mother. Unlike her father and
brother, whose legitimacy was never questioned, Elizabeth had to confront dynastic challenges at her accession
which continued almost until her death.

Another difficulty for Elizabeth was that she inherited a realm ill at ease with itself. The religious persecution under
her sister, Mary, had divided communities and traumatised English Protestants and their sympathisers. The
economic recession, dreadful harvests and devastating epidemics of the mid – 1550s created uncertainties and
shattered the lives of many ordinary people. The humiliating French capture of Calais (England’s last continental
possession) in January 1558 punctured confidence in England’s military power and international prestige.

From these problems Elizabeth emerged triumphant. She confounded her Catholic enemies, imposed her will on the
political scene, turned England into a strong Protestant state, presided over a glittering court culture and died in her
bed at the age of 69. Her unusual situation as an unmarried queen – the only one in British history – created a
mystique around her that has survived to the present. Unsurprisingly, scholarly studies and biographies of the queen
come regularly off the press, easily outnumbering those devoted to the other Tudors.

Elizabeth’s dominant place in British history is above all assured by the establishment and defence of the 1559
Protestant settlement – the English Prayer Book and Thirty Nine Articles of Religion – which remains the basis of the
Church of England today. Due to her determination, the Church of England remained sufficiently flexible and
moderate.

Elizabeth’s importance in British history is also a result of the defeat of the Spanish Armada. Her victory saved
England from Spanish rule and preserved the Protestant church. It also restored confidence in England’s martial
reputation and pointed to the future when England would become a major naval power.

Of course, Elizabeth’s fame also rests on her virginity. It had two important positive results. The first is that her heir
was to be James VI, who united in his person England and Scotland, a crucially important event in the development
of British history. The second is it transformed the queen into a cultural icon.

Susan Doran – lecturer at Oxford University and author of Elizabeth I and Religion 1558 – 1603 (Routledge, 1993)

QUESTIONS

1. What is Doran’s overall argument about the significance of Elizabeth I?

2. What ‘smaller’/ contributory arguments does she use to construct her ‘big’ argument?

3. What evidence has she used to support her arguments, big and small?

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 WORKERS REVOLT:THE GREAT CAT MASSACRE OF THE
RUE SAINT-SEVERIN

THE FUNNIEST THING that ever happened in the printing shop of Jacques Vincent, according to a worker
who witnessed it, was a riotous massacre of cats. The worker, Nicolas Contat, told the story in an account
of his apprenticeship in the shop, rue Saint- Séverin, Paris, during the late 1730s. Life as an apprentice was
hard, he explained. There were two of them: Jerome, the somewhat fictionalized version of Contat himself,
and Léveillé. They slept in a filthy, freezing room, rose before dawn, ran errands all day while dodging
insults from the journeymen and abuse from the master, and received nothing but slops to eat. They found
the food especially galling. Instead of dining at the master's table, they had to eat scraps from his plate in
the kitchen. Worse still, the cook secretly sold the leftovers and gave the boys cat food, old, rotten bits of
meat that they could not stomach and so passed on to the cats, who refused it.

This last injustice brought Contat to the theme of cats. They occupied a special place in his narrative and in
the household of the rue Saint-Séverin. The master's wife adored them, especially la grise (the gray), her
favorite. A passion for cats seemed to have swept through the printing trade, at least at the level of the
masters, or bourgeois as the workers called them. One bourgeois kept twenyfive cats. He had their
portraits painted and fed them on roast fowl. Meanwhile, the apprentices were trying to cope with a
profusion of alley cats who also thrived in the printing district and made the boys' lives miserable. The cats
howled all night on the roof over the apprentices' dingy bedroom, making it impossible to get a full night's
sleep. As Jerome and Léveillé had to stagger out of bed at four or five in the morning to open the gate for
the earliest arrivals among the journeymen, they began the day in a state of exhaustion while the bourgeois
slept late. The master did not even work with the men, just as he did not eat with them. He let the foreman
run the shop and rarely appeared in it, except to vent his violent temper, usually at the expense of the
apprentices.

One night the boys resolved to right this inequitable state of affairs. Léveillé, who had an extraordinary
talent for mimicry, crawled along the roof until he reached a section near the master's bedroom, and then
he took to howling and meowing so horribly that the bourgeois and his wife did not sleep a wink. After
several nights of this treatment, they decided they were being bewitched. But instead of calling the cure the
master was exceptionally devout and the mistress exceptionally attached to her confessor they
commanded the apprentices to get rid of the cats. The mistress gave the order, enjoining the boys above
all to avoid frightening her grise.

Gleefully Jerome and Léveillé set to work, aided by the journeymen. Armed with broom handles, bars of the
press, and other tools of their trade, they went after every cat they could find, beginning with la grise.
Léveillé smashed its spine with an iron bar and Jerome finished it off. Then they stashed it in a gutter while
t'he journeymen drove the other cats across the rooftops, bludgeoning everyone within reach and trapping
those who tried to escape in strategically placed sacks. They dumped sackloads of half-dead cats in the
courtyard. Then the entire workshop gathered round and staged a mock trial, complete with guards, a
confessor, and a public executioner. After pronouncing the animals guilq and administering last rites, they
strung them up on an improvised gallows. Roused by gales of laughter, the mistress arrived. She let out a
shriek as soon as she saw a bloody cat dangling from a noose. Then she realized it might be la grise.
Certainly not, the men assured her: they had too much respect for the house to do such a thing. At this
point the master appeared. He flew into a rage at the general stoppage of work, though his wife tried to
explain that they were threatened by a more serious kind of insubordination. Then master and mistress
withdrew, leaving the men delirious with "joy," "disorder," and "laughter”.

The laughter did not end there. Léveillé reenacted the entire scene in mime at least twenty times during
subsequent days when the printers wanted to knock off for some hilariity. Burlesque reenactments of
incidents in the life of the shop, known as copies in printers' slang, provided a major form of entertainment
for the men. The idea was to humiliate someone in the shop by satirizing his peculiarities. A successful
copie would make the butt of the joke fume with rage—prendre la chèvre (take the goat) in the shop
slang—while his mates razzed him with "rough music." They would run their composing sticks across the
tops of the qpe cases, beat their mallets against the chases, pound on cupboards, and bleat like goats. The
bleating (bats in the slang) stood for the humiliation heaped on the victims, as in English when someone
"gets your goat." Contat emphasized that Léveillé produced the funniest copies anyone had ever known

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and elicited the greatest choruses of rough music. The whole episode, cat massacre compounded by
copies, stood out as the most hilarious experience in Jerome's entire career.

Yet it strikes the modern reader as unfunny, if not downright repulsive. Where is the humour in a group of
grown men bleating like goats and banging with their tools while an adolescent re-enacts the ritual
slaughter of a defenceless animal? Our own inability to get the joke is an indication of the distance that
separates us from the workers of preindustrial Europe. The perception of that distance may serve as the
starting point of an investigation; for anthropologists have found that the best points of entry in an attempt
to penetrate an alien culture can be those where it seems to be most opaque. When you realize that you
are not getting something—a joke, a proverb, a ceremony—that is particularly meaningful to the natives,
you can see where to grasp a foreign system of meaning in order to unravel it. By getting the joke of the
great cat massacre, it may be possible to "get" a basic ingredient of artisanal culture under the Old Regime.

‘THE PURSUIT OF HISTORY’ – JOHN TOSH

1. Why does Tosh argue that the act of writing is important for historians?
2. What are the three basic types of history writing, according to Tosh?
3. Summarise each type of writing in one sentence.
4. Why is asking the question ‘why?’ more complex than it might seem?
5. What is ‘manifest history’ and ‘latent history’?
6. How does Lawrence Stone try to explain historical causation?
7. What do the terms ‘diachronic’ and ‘synchronic’ mean?
8. What is the ‘post hoc propter hoc’ fallacy?
9. How does AJP Taylor say about the causes of the First World War?
10.Why does Tosh criticise narrative history?
11.What are the benefits and disadvantages of looking at the past both in extreme
close – up and in overview?
12.What does Ferdnand Braudel mean by ‘submerged history’?
13.What are Braudel’s three ‘planes’ of history?
14.What does Tosh say are the qualities of a successful historian?
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