190 ROBINSON— THE NEW HISTORY. [April 22, 



that much of what now passes for the elements of history meet the 

 needs of none. 



It would take too long to attempt an analysis of the value of a 

 genetic treatment of the elements in our social life. It is perhaps 

 the greatest single discovery of modern times that we understand a 

 situation best through its history, and this discovery has revolution- 

 ized every branch of organic and social science. Indeed we ordi- 

 narily first get a fairly comprehensive notion of a given phenomenon 

 by tracing its origin and development, whether it be the human back- 

 bone, the order of St. ISenedict. the stock exchange, the Wagnerian 

 opera, or the doctrine of stare decisis. In many cases the knowledge 

 of the history of an institution not uncommonly gravely affects our 

 attitude toward it. The United States Senate looks different to 

 one familiar with the history of the bicameral system and to one 

 who is not. The Puritan sabbath could never have sustained a 

 critical historical examination. One's views of democracy, or of the 

 present laws of property, or of the prevailing economic organization, 

 can readily be deeply aff'ected by a study of the earlier conditions' 

 which lie back of present conditions. History has a disintegrating 

 effect on current prejudices which is as yet scarcely appreciated. It 

 makes both for understanding and for intellectual emancipation as 

 nothing else can. 



(Jbviously history must be rewritten, or rather, innumerable cur- 

 rent issues must be given their neglected historic background. Our 

 present so-called histories do not ordinarily answer the questions we 

 would naturally and insistently put to them. When we contemplate 

 the strong demand that women are making for the right to vote, we 

 ask ourselves how did the men win the vote? The historians we 

 consult have scarcely asked themselves that question and so do not 

 answer it. W'e ask how did our courts come to control legislation in 

 the exceptional and extraordinary manner they do? We look in 

 vain in most histories for a reply. No one questions the inalienable 

 right of the historian to interest himself in any phase of the past 

 that he chooses. It is only to be wished that a greater number of 

 historians had greater skill in hitting upon those phases of the past 

 which serve us best in understanding the most vital problems of the 

 present. 



Columbia University. 



