Who is the West's leading historian?
Who is our Homer, our Tacitus, our Pliny the Elder?
I often go to the Brit transplant Niall Ferguson, he's a brilliant scholar and fantastic public orator (I once witnessed him absolutely fillet a PBS panel single handily) whose books are used in both "liberal" and "conservative" universities in a multitude of nations. But who is considered "the" guy, or at the very least "the" institution?
My question's genesis is a result of the History Channel's series: Who Really Discovered America?. They present at least 8 different possibilities all predating Columbus as much as 22,000 years, ranging from the Vikings (a rather obvious one) to the Japanese (matching pottery in Ecuador) to the wandering tribe of Israel (confirmation of which would lend historical creedence to The Book of Mormon, I might add). And all that's fine - any post high school pseudo historian knows Asian migration "discovered" the Americas prior to the Pinta, Nina and Santa Maria. My question is more general - who's the standard bearer? Whom must an archaeologist or budding historian convince of his theory for it to go "mainstream?"
I will say this, technology is again imposing itself over traditional renditions of history, and I don't mean carbon dating. Multiple historical societies and institutions are using advanced DNA testing/sequencing to discover previously unknown "interactions" between disparate cultures and nations hitherto unconnected by either oral or written history.
I know the past is a powerful voice within each of us here. And as such I recalled from one essay (& I paraphrase) Pliny the Younger writing to Tacitus regarding his uncle's passing - It is those favored by the Gods granted either to do what is worth writing, or write what is worth reading. I number my uncle among those few blessed in both.
My question is, who is the guy writing what's worth reading about history in 2010?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment