A classic essay on the distortions of history that occur when historians impose a rigid point of view on the study of the past.
It is not as easy to understand the past as many who have written it would have us believe. The historians who look at it from the Protestant, progressive, "19th Century gentleman" viewpoint are defined by Professor Butterfield as "the Whig historians." The Whig historian studies the past with reference to the present. He looks for agency in history. And, in his search for origins and causes, he can easily select those facts that give support to his thesis and thus eliminate other facts equally important to the total picture.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
"The Whig Interpretation of History" is superb meditation on the craft of history and how it can be distorted by "whig history." This was how Herbert Butterfield described historians who project modern attitudes on to the past, pass moral judgments on historical figures, and regard history as significant only to the extent that it labored to create the modern world. Butterfield regarded "whig history" as the antithesis of real history, which glories in the sheer "differentness" of the past and attempts to understand past events and people in the context of their own time, not of ours. Butterfield's writing was eloquent, his thought profound, and his temperament humane. His book, although old, is a genuine classic, to be treasured by all historians and readers of history. Highly recommended.
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
By Kevin Jones
Format:Paperback
On reading histories of the nineteenth century, one cannot help but note that the historians believed that all the clashes of history inevitably led to the apotheosis of virtue in the person of the Whig gentleman. Sir Butterfield adeptly demolishes such a naive, though entrenched, approach to historical documentation, noting that the chaos of history, whether provoked by the Reformation or by English politics, in no way consciously intended many of its results. Religious liberty, for instance, was not a conscious aim of the Protestant Reformation, but a byproduct of the brutal wars over religion which scarred Europe for a century. It is only in the deforming glasses of Whig interpreters that the Protestant Reformers appear as advocating everything whiggish.
Butterfield does have a few of his own biases, speaking in the magisterial "we" when declaring our age a secularized one, or speaking of alleged Catholic irrationality. But these are minor faults, and easily accounted for, hardly marring lthis excellent essay.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
At the time this book was originally published (1931) I suspect it had a lot of direct relevance for practicing historians. Today, it reads somewhat old fashioned. However, it's well written, if a bit formal, and certainly needs to be read by anyone who wants to keep his or her thinking about history on track. But see also the mention this book gets in Fischer's Historians' Fallacies. Even Sir Herbert doesn't escape that work unscathed.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
AN INFLUENTIAL CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHER OF HISTORY
Herbert Butterfield (1900-1979) was a British historian and philosopher of history, who also wrote Christianity and History and The Origins of History. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Steven H. Propp
2.0 out of 5 stars
Not for me
I bought this for college. Boring as hell. This book is for history majors. I didnt like it. No good
Published 4 months ago by John
5.0 out of 5 stars
Essential reading for any student of history
An excellent warning of common historical fallacies. A must for developing a mature understanding of proper historiography .
Published on April 2, 2007 by J. Mortier
5.0 out of 5 stars
Gettin' Whiggy With It
I'd always fancied myself more of a Tory until I read this book. It's changed my outlook on life. I mean, in a perfect world, I'd be a Constitutional Monarchist. But hey.
Published on February 15, 2006 by Kirk Davis
4.0 out of 5 stars
Highly enjoyable, sane, if a bit dated
I am not a historian, nor am I especially familiar with historiography. The remarks here will, therefore, be those of a well read neophyte. Read more
Published on May 25, 2002 by Robert Moore
5.0 out of 5 stars
Interpretation of history : Whig and Tory
My review will be in french (my mother tongue) and english. The english parliamentary history in England was under two interpretations (Whig or Tory), but the Whig interpretation... Read more
Published on April 11, 2000 by Bruno Deshaies, D. es L. (Univ. de Montreal)
Citations (learn more)
100
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- The Muse of History and the Science of Culture by Robert L. Carneiro on 4 pages
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- Meaning and Context by James Tully in Back Matter (1), Back Matter (2), and Back Matter (3)
- Postmodernism in History: Fear or Freedom? by Beverley Southgate in Back Matter (1), Back Matter (2), and Back Matter (3)
- On Hallowed Ground: Abraham Lincoln and the Foundations of American History by Professor John Patrick Diggins in Front Matter, page 112, and Back Matter
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