The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 43, July 1939 - April, 1940 Page: 380
576 p. : ill., maps ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Southwestern, Historical Quarterly
drew it up. Not so with the historian. He always knows that he
does not have the truth, that at best he has only fragments of
it, an approximation. The human being, like the butterfly, did
some things without leaving a record, and the record itself is not
scientific. It was not based on experiment, but on a single ob-
servation. It is colored by a human mind. It must then pass
through the historian's mind, and there it is subject to further
mutation. Hence, the simplest fact of history, by the time it
reaches the reader, has been refracted through the distorting
medium of at least two minds. How can the scientist who is
so sure of himself depend on such unreliable data? He does not.
The experimental scientist repudiates it all and he scorns those
who seek shelter under his roof.
Two courses are open. The historians can define science to
include the method and the materials they use. This is the long
road, one in which the true scientist will place many obstacles.
The other course is for the historian, and his allies, to realize
that his problem requires its methods conditioned by the nature
of its material. The field is as deep as recorded time and as
rich as human experience.
It seems to me that it is far better to be a legitimate historian
than a pseudo scientist, and however the social scientist regards
himself, the natural scientist regards him at best as a pseudo
scientist and at worst a shelter beggar under a momentarily pop-
ular roof. In any case, he is forever doomed to play second
fiddle as long as he is an intruder.
The Texas State Historical Association is conducting an ex-
periment to discover the interest of Texas people in Texas his-
tory. It held a meeting in San Antonio on December 1 in
connection with the State Teachers Association. It will hold
similar meetings next year, and the year after. This San Antonio
meeting was attended not only by teachers but by many promi-
nent citizens of San Antonio. The hall was crowded, extra chairs
had to be brought in, and people stayed to talk for an hour or
more after the meeting was adjourned. The experiment will be
worth watching. It will not be too scientific, but it will be his-
torical, very human.380
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 43, July 1939 - April, 1940, periodical, 1940; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101111/m1/404/: accessed April 27, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.