The Condescension of Posterity

[pjthompson]

"I became attracted at an early stage of my education as a historian to eschew what Edward Thompson describes as 'the massive condescension of posterity': That is, the common habit of writing off the mental worlds of those of our ancestors who, we think, took a wrong turn while that march of progress was going on or who, more broadly, demonstrated that irritating habit of not sharing the values which we have come to think of as important."

—James Sharpe, The Instruments of Darkness

Comments

[frigg.livejournal.com]

Yes, very interesting.

[pjthompson]

What really brought this home to me (if I needed it) was when I picked up a translation of Bernal's account of the conquest of Mexico from the conquistador's POV. It had been published in the fifties, so the scholar writing the introduction was obviously writing in the fifties. I was struck by how different his take on the conquistadors was from the present day concept. He portrayed them as heroes bringing civilization to the brutal savages of the Americas--and he was as utterly convinced of the correctness of his historical worldview as we are of our historical worldview that they were rapacious bastards.