Historians' Perspectives

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Historians' Perspectives

Every situation can be looked at from so many different angles that it is very difficult for any two people to agree on what is going on. Ten people could look at the same situation and create ten different theories or assumptions as to what is occurring. This is because no two people have the same backgrounds, no two people have the same experiences, and no two people think exactly the same. These factors come together to distinguish each person as an individual. Every person has the ability to interpret the same situation in a different way. This occurs more often then not, when one historian has a theory about a time period or a historical event. One historian could look at the assassination of John F. Kennedy and think that it was a governmental conspiracy, while another may look at it merely as an ex-marine that went mad and killed the President. Still on the same subject a third historian may combine facts from both arguments to create a whole new view of his own.

This is exactly what occurred after Richard Hofstadter wrote his book The Age of Reform. He made an argument on progressivism in his book in 1955, which was not written as fact but more as opinion. After that three different articles were written on the same topic from different angles. Richard L. McCormick, Paula Baker, and Peter G. Filene, all wrote articles which either agreed or disagreed with Hofstadter. At points they completely disagreed with points that Hofstadter made, but then in the same article they agreed and support a point Hofstadter made. All four people wrote on the same topic but all four took different views. This was their right as individuals to do and at some points they had similarities but then at others they went to other sides of the spectrum.

Hofstadter in his book, The Age of Reform, broke down the age of reform as a time period from 1896 to the 1930’s. Within this time period, he then divided it into three separate sections or movements. The first section being that of the populist movement, the second was the progressive movement, and third was the reforms made during the New Deal. He begins with the populist movement and how it started based on the agrarian myth in rural and southern areas. This myth had the farmers thinking that they held an important part in society and that their job has a special value.

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