Undoing the Holy Trinity

Posted on January 12, 2008
Filed Under academia, historiography, holy trinity |

Nope, this isn’t a post about Christianity, although it does look at something that folks get a bit religious about.

I’m talking about the so-called “holy trinity” of historians: race, class, and gender. Today, the dialog among professional historians revolves, in many ways, around one or more of these issues. In the history field, every professional article, every graduate research paper, and every book has to look at all three of these things, even if it is devoted to mainly one of them. No holy trinity, no publication. No publication, no tenure. It’s that simple. Academic freedom only applies to those who follow the prevailing winds. In this sense, the holy trinity of history really is a core dogma, in the way that the Holy Trinity is a core dogma for Christianity.

At any rate, it is my contention that history is not about race, class, or gender, although those certainly are elements that one can consider. History, rather, is about people. It is about the big people and the little people. It is about what they do, what they think, and how they lived their lives. It is about the gifts they have given us, in terms of example, and in terms of heritage. To suggest that history is moved by race, class, and gender is to narrow human experience down to something, well, less than human. In attempting to level the playing field in these areas, professional historians have stripped history of its true meanings. Race, class, and gender are all fine topics, but they are small topics in the grand scheme of history. It is ideas, passion, and action that have moved history along, not these relatively small concerns.

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