Society for History Education

The Footnote: A Curious History by Anthony Grafton Review by: Joanna Waley-Cohen The History Teacher, Vol. 32, No. 3 (May, 1999), pp. 458-459 Published by: Society for History Education Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/494387 . Accessed: 07/11/2013 09:46
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458

TheHistory Teacher

TheFootnote:A CuriousHistory,by AnthonyGrafton. MA: Harvard Cambridge, University Press, 1997. 235 pages. $22.95.
This elegant book delivers much more than its title suggests:it offers a partialhistory of Europeanhistoricalculture,or the historian'sprofession.Rangingto and fro betweenthe nineteenth century, the Enlightenment,the Reformation,the Renaissance, and classical antiquity, the authorpresents a cast of charactersthat includes Leopold von Ranke as protagonist,andalso EdwardGibbon,PierreBayle, AthanasiusKircher,Jacques-Auguste de Thou, FrancescoGuicciardini,Plutarch,and Herodotusamongmany others.Drawing attention to the close and sometimes necessary links between politics and history, the authormakes clear how the documentationor verificationof historicalwritingreceived particularlyclose attentionwhen long-standingtraditionscame underradical attack.He cites two principle examples of this tendency: first, the later sixteenth century, when Protestantismmassively challenged the predominanceof the Catholic Church,and second, the early nineteenth century, in the aftermathof the upheavals of the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars. "In each case both attackersand defenders of entrenched practices tried to find evidence for their positions in the past. The rapid was directly concerned development of new techniques in researchand argumentation with the wider world of struggle over land and belief' (p. 231). The book also devotes considerable space to demonstratinghow Ranke, a selfinnovatoroften describedas a founderof "modern proclaimedhistoriographical history," in fact derived much of his method from earlierprecedents,althoughhe did infuse the study andwritingof historywith a newly enthusiasticfocus on primaryresearch.In short, the historicaldiscipline are periodic claims thatfresh theorieshave radicallytransformed underminedby the evidence of the slow progress of change. We learn how importantit was for historians, before the opening of state archives and librariesto general public access, to have the resourcesto amasstheirown privateresearchlibrariesor the influence to gain admittanceto one. The Footnote, liberally peppered with architectural, culinary and other lively metaphors, is likely to be helpful primarilyfor teachers and students at the graduatelevel, although it might also be constructively used in advanced courses for undergraduate historymajors.Its analysesof the varyingpurposesof footnotes-whether they constitute commentary(morethanonce Graftonappreciatively quotesGibbon'sironic annotations), debate contraryopinion, evaluate conflicting evidence, or serve chiefly as source references-provide rich food for thought.The same is trueof the discussion of the natureof primary sources and the need to evaluate them critically. Some may find too obvious Grafton's observation that even contemporaneouscommentatorsare rarely free from prejudice,but the need for sensitivity to context is a point well worthreiterating.Also of interest to the fledgling (and more experienced)historianis the author'sfrequentreference to the complexities of historiography, in other words his analysis of the writing of history as partly investigative research and partly narrativeproduction. The author stresses both how difficult it is to achieve a smooth amalgamation and thatit is impractical to expect footnotes either to do the job or to be completely comprehensive.Every "wise historian" knows thatthereis always more to be said;further argumentscan always be made. Some minor flaws meritmention.The centralityof RankeandGermanhistoriography to the author's argumentswould have benefited from more specific justification. The text's own unusualhistorymay partiallyexplain this. Originallydraftedin English, it was first published in Germantranslation; the English edition presentlyunderreview represents an English revision of thatwork, which, accordingto the copyrightpage, is also to

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be published in French. It would also have been relevant at least to note that those predecessors of Ranke whom Graftondiscusses lived in a more generallyEuropean,less nationally conscious age. Further,the authormight have placed greateremphasis on the fact that Germanhistoriographywas enormouslyinfluentialelsewhere in Europeand in the United States. Anothersmall shortcomingis thatsome readersmay be less conversant thanthe authorwith the fields of EuropeanandWesternclassical history andhistoriography; at times they may feel somewhat at sea in an unfamiliarworld. Notwithstanding these minor drawbacks,this work deserves attentionfrom a wide audience thatincludes both those engaged in the craftof writingaboutthe past andthose whose principalinterest lies in the developmentof intellectualhistory. New YorkUniversity JoannaWaley-Cohen

Nixon's Piano: Racial Politicsfrom Washington to Clinton,by KennethO'Reilly. New York:Free Press, 1995. 524 pages. $27.50, hardback.
Thereis something to be said for a good title, one thatcatches the reader'seyes and ears. In this day, when publishersareconcernedwith includingin theirtitles certainkey words that will spring up like magic in computersearches, it is refreshingto find a snazzy title like Nixon's Piano. In 1970, PresidentRichardNixon appearedat the piano before the GridironClub in As Nixon poundedout Washingtonandplayed some of the favoritesongs of pastpresidents. FranklinRoosevelt's favorite "Home on the Range," Truman's "MissouriWaltz," and Lyndon Johnson's "The Eyes of Texas are Upon You," his vice presidentSpiro Agnew chimed in by playing a much louder "Dixie,"finally drowningout Nixon in each case. dialect,"Yessuh,Mr.President, Agnew thencommentedin whatcan only be called "darky" Ah agree with you completelyon yoah southern The crowdroared.For Kenneth strategy." the Southern O'Reilly, Nixon's pianorepresents strategythatevery Americanpresidenthas into his political scheme. In some fashion,O'Reilly argues,all the presidents incorporated fromGeorgeWashingtonto Bill Clintonhave hadto dealwithraceissues, the dispositionof slavery, the slave states themselves, post-Civil War Reconstruction,and the twentieth centurybalancingact of winningeitherblackor white votes at the expense of the other.In O'Reilly's final analysis,every presidentexcept Lincoln and LyndonJohnsonhas failed, sacrificingblackvotes andblackissues to win over the racistwhite majority. At first glance there is too much here. The very idea of analyzing the so-called Southernstrategiesof all forty-twopresidentsseems absurd.Did MartinVan Burenreally have a Southernstrategy?James Garfield?Do we need to be told that John Tyler was a racist? But after a tedious one hundredpages O'Reilly's rhythm, style, and his book's content picks up considerablyas he leaves behind the Van Burens and the Garfieldsand dives into the second Roosevelt election, andthen moves quickly throughTrumanandon towardNixon, the real heartof his book. In fact, readerswould be wise simply to see the first one hundredpages here as a long introduction,a brief history of how Nixon's Southernstrategyfinally reachedhis hands;andthe last one hundred pages as the story of how Nixon's Southernstrategy has evolved since he left office in 1974. It was Nixon, O'Reilly concludes, who saw the need for an aggressive Southernstrategy, who went afterwhite votes at the expense of black votes, and who played America's divisive racial characterthe way he played his piano thatnight at the GridironClub in 1970.

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