Northeastern Political Science Association

History, Agency, and Political Change

Author(s): Victoria Hattam
Source: Polity, Vol. 32, No. 3 (Spring, 2000), pp. 333-338
Published by: Palgrave Macmillan Journals
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Polity * VolumeXXXII,Number3 * Spring 2000

History, Agency, and Political Change

Victoria Hattam
New School for Social Research

Agency Through History

Manypoliticalscientistshaveturnedto historicalresearchas meansof clarifying
the constraintsshapingcontemporarypoliticalaction.Polsky'sself-identified
pessimismin thisforumcapturesthisview of politicalhistoryelegantlywhen he identifiesnotionsof "pathdependence"and "policylegacies"as key contributionsof
historicalresearch.The focus for manyhistoricallyorientedpoliticalscientistshas
been on identifyingthe ways in which politicalinstitutionsand policieshave provideda distinctive
set of incentivesandconstraintsthathave,in turn,structuredsubsequentpoliticalchoice.'AlthoughI agreewith much in this line of argument,my
own interestin history,andin historically
groundedpoliticalresearch,stems froma
quitedifferentimpulse.I turnto historypreciselyto gaina sense of politicalagency
by expandingthe set of politicalpossibilitiesavailablein contemporarypolitical
debate. History,fromthis perspective,serves as an agent for, ratherthan a constrainton, politicalchange.Ifpoliticalactorsand activistswere to read"our"work,
I hope theywould leave it with an extendedsense of politicalpossibilitiesas the
verybest politicalhistory,as I see it,oughtto broadenthe culturalandpoliticalhorizons we use to framecontemporarypoliticaldebate.
Thereare at least threeways in which historyacts as a source of agencyand
change;firsthistorydenaturalizesthe present;second it is a source of alternative
visionsand practices;and finally,it helpsto specifycontemporarypoliticaltopography.Allthreedimensionsof agencycan be foundin most politicalhistories.Unfortunatelythereis no roomhereto surveythe field,thusa few instancesof each will
have to suffice.Letme brieflyoutlineand illustrateeach of these mechanismsfor
expandingoursense of agencyandpoliticalchangethroughhistoricalresearchand
concludewith some remarkson questionsof presentismin politicalhistory.
One of the most importantimpulsesand effectsof politicalhistoryhas been to
denaturalizethe present.That is to unmaskthe taken for granted,or common
Historicalresearch
sense, natureof our currentpoliticalinstitutionsand practices.2
1. See JamesG.MarchandJohanOlsen,"TheNew Institutionalism:
Factorsin Political
Organizational
andThedaSkocpol,eds.,Bringingthe
Life,"APSR78 (1984):734-49;PeterB. Evans,DietrichReuschmeyer,
StateBackIn (NewYork:Cambridge
Press,1985);PaulPierson,"WhenEffectBecomesCause:
University
Weir,Politicsand
PolicyFeedbackandPoliticalChange,"WorldPolitics45, 4 (July1993):595-628;Margaret
Jobs:TheBoundariesof Employment
PrincetonUniversity
Press,
Policyin the UnitedStates (Princeton:
1992);andPolskyin thisforum.
2. Fora fascinatingaccountof common sense, see CliffordGeertz,"CommonSense,"in his Local
Knowledge:Further
(NewYork:BasicBooks,1983):73-93.
Essaysin Interpretative
Anthropology

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ANDPOLITICAL
CHANGE
334 HISTORY,
AGENCY,

quicklyputsoureverydayassumptionsaboutpoliticsintoquestionas we encounter
and assumptionsin earliereras.The sense of differverydifferentunderstandings
ence providedby historyoften has opened up questionsof social and political
withoutthe hisorganizationthatmay not have seemed in need of interpretation
toricalcontrast.Historicalresearchhas been especiallyimportant,I believe,in the
of the objectsof
sub-fieldof Americanpoliticswhere, giventhe culturalfamiliarity
for
it
is
all
too
to
take
our
current
politicalpractices granted.Historical
easy
study,
to
researchhas broughtmanyof us face face with very differentpoliticalorders,
therebyunderscoringthe contingentstatus of a whole varietyof contemporary
Historical
comparison,thus,providesa pointof contrastthat
politicalarrangements.
helpsto problematizeaspectsof Americancultureandpoliticsthatotherwisemight
have been left unexamined.Scholarsworkingin the subfieldof comparativepolitics often can obtaina sense of analyticdifferencegeographically by comparing
a rangeof politicaloutcomesacrossnationalboundariesat a singlepointin time.
Americanists,by contrast,rarelyhave such an opportunityand thus many have
sought this point of differencetemporarily, by turningto historyfor a point of
comparison.Inshort,historyhas provideda much neededcomparativedimension
to Americanpoliticswhichhas, in turn,openedup contemporarypoliticalarrangements for furtheranalysis.3StephenSkowronek'sconceptualizationof the early
Americanstateas a "stateof courtsand parties"has playedsuch a role in opening
Karen
up questionsof the natureand limitsof statecapacityin the U.S.Similarly,
Orren'sworkon the persistenceof Feudalisminto the earlytwentiethcenturyhas
turnedournotionsof liberalismand labor'srelationto it upsidedown,therebycallingintoquestionmanyassumptionsaboutthe natureof Americanpoliticspastand
present.4
Second, many scholarshave gained an increasedsense of politicalagency
throughthe recoveryof alternativepoliticalvisions and modes of organization
uncoveredthroughdetailedhistoricalresearch.History,forthese politicalscientists,
embeddedwithinthe domihas been a processof recoveringthe countercultures
of the
nantculturethathavebeen obscuredby all too Whiggishan understanding
of
social
and
has
the
these
lost
alternatives
expanded range
past. Reconstructing
haveengagedin extensivehistoricalresearch.WhatI am arguingis
3. Ofcourse,manycomparativists
thathistoricalresearchhas a particular
importin the subfieldof Americanpolitics,not that
methodological
historicalinstitutionalist
it does not existelsewhere.Forfineexamplesof comparative
research,see Theda
SvenSteinmo,KathleenThelen,andFrankLongstreth,
eds.,StrucSkocpol,StatesandSocialRevolutions;
in Comparative
Press,
University
Analysis(NewYork:Cambridge
turingPolitics:HistoricalInstitutionalism
inBritainandFrance(New
the Economy:ThePoliticsof StateIntervention
1992);PeterA. Hall,Governing
Politicsand Industrialization:
York:OxfordUniversity
Press,1986);ColleenDunlavy,
EarlyRailroadsin the
HealthPoliPrincetonUniversity
UnitedStatesand Prussia(Princeton:
Press,1994);and EllenImmergut,
in WesternEurope(NewYork:Cambridge
tics:Interestsand Institutions
Press,1992).
University
State:TheExpansionof NationalAdministrative
4. See StephenSkowronek,
Buildinga NewAmerican
Press,1982);andKarrenOrren,BelatedFeudalism:
Cambridge
University
Capacities,1877-1920(NewYork:
in theUnitedStates(NewYork:
Press,1991).
Labor,theLaw,andLiberalDevelopment
University
Cambridge

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Victoria Hattam 335

politicaloutcomes that might be consideredin contemporarypoliticaldebates.

demiseis criticalifwe areto assessthe relevanceand
Accountingforthe alternatives'
of
such
alternatives
forcontemporarypoliticaldebate.GeraldBerk
politicalviability
and GaryHerrigel'saccountsof the competingforms of corporateorganization
are fine examplesof such work;
duringAmericanand Germanindustrialization
GretchenRitter'sand my own workmightbe seen as instancesof recoveringalternativevisionsof economicorganization
and politicson the laborside, while Anne
Nortonhasexploredalternative
formsof cultureandpoliticsin theAmericanSouth.5
Third,politicalhistorymightbe used to empowerratherthanconstrainpolitical
choice much as Smitharguesin this forum.I thinkof this as the topographical
accountof historyin which we lay bare past politicalsettlementsnot so much to
establishthe set of currentpoliticalchoices, but ratherso thatwe mightknow the
terrainon whichwe are operatingand therebywage the most effectivecampaign
to bringourvariouspoliticalvisionsto fruition.Putsimply,in orderto be politically
effectivewe mustknowwherethe bodiesare buriedand politicalhistoryis one of
the keymeansof identifyingtheirlocation.Mappingthe politicalterrainwill not,of
course,predictthe outcome;norwill it, or shouldit, lead to agreementoverwhat
our course of actionoughtto be. Ratherit simplymakesapparentthe conditions
underwhichwe seek to specifyand worktowardour respectivesocialvisions.Ira
Katznelson'sCityTrenchesseems a classicworkin thisvein,in which he identifies
a centralpoliticalfaultline runningthroughAmericanpoliticsafterthe onset of
in whichAmericanworkersidentifyand mobilizepoliticallyon the
industrialization
basisof residenceratherthanemployment.Understanding
the natureandoriginsof
thisdivisionis essentialforany politicalactorwho would wage an effectiveurban
politicalcampaign.6RogersSmith'srecentwork on Americancivic idealsand the
multipletraditionswhich informthem also exemplifiesthis approach,as Smith
arguesthatthe particular
weightgivento the competingtraditionsshapingourcitizenshiprequirementsultimatelyis determinedby the balanceof politicalforcesat
any given historicalmoment.The outcome can neversimplybe readoff of past
politicalsettlements;rather,the historicalrecordoughtto alertus to the forcesto be
reckonedwith in ourown time.7

5. See GeraldBerk,Alternative
Tracks:TheConstitution
of AmericanIndustrial
Order,1865-1916(Baltimore:Johns HopkinsUniversity
TheSourcesof
Press, 1993);GaryHerrigel,IndustrialConstructions:
GermanIndustrial
Power(NewYork:Cambridge
Press,1997);RichardLocke,RemakingtheItalUniversity
ian Economy(Ithaca:CornellUniversity
TheAntiPress,1997);GretchenRitter,
Goldbugsand Greenbacks:
and the Politicsof Finance,1865-1896(NewYork:Cambridge
Press,1997);
monopolyTradition
University
VictoriaHattam,LaborVisionsand StatePower:TheOriginsof BusinessUnionismin the UnitedStates
PrincetonUniversity
AReadingof Antebellum
Americas:
(Princeton:
Press,1993);AnneNorton,Alternative
PoliticalCulture(Chicago:ChicagoUniversity
Press,1989).
6. See IraKatznelson,CityTrenches:UrbanPoliticsand the Patterning
of Classin the UnitedStates
of ChicagoPress,1982).
(Chicago:University
7. See RogersSmith,CivicIdeals:Conflicting
Visionsof Citizenshipin U.S.History(New Haven:Yale
Press,1997).
University

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336 HISTORY,
ANDPOLITICAL
CHANGE
AGENCY,

Letme illustratethesedynamicsof historyas a sourceof agencyand changeby

drawingon mycurrentresearchon ethnicityandAmericanracialpolitics.Thepoint
is not to suggestits exemplarynaturebut ratherto providesome fleshforthe skeletalargumentsadvancedabove.

Ethnicity Then and Now

Wearelivingthroughan historiceraof immigration
intothe UnitedStates,thehigh
levelsof whichhaveonlybeen matchedtwicebeforeinAmericanhistory,firstduring
the 1850sand again at the turnof the centuryduringthe Progressiveera. Many
observersbothinsideandoutsidetheacademyareaskinghow thesepost-1965immiand politically.
grantswillalignculturally
Where,manywantto know,willthe principalsocialcleavagesbe drawnintheearlydecadesof thetwenty-first
century?Myown
sense of how immigration
an
politicswill playin the decadesto come is principally
politics.Thatis, my
argumentforthe relevanceof politicalhistoryforcontemporary
willalignpolitically
own sense of how contemporary
is shapedin crucial
immigrants
erasettlementbetweensecond
waysby the past.Onlyby recoveringthe Progressive
wave immigrants
andelitescanwe beginto decipherthecontoursof immigrant
politicstoday.Butthismuchalmostallcan agreeon;the rubcomeswhen one beginsto
specifymorepreciselytheparticular
ways inwhichthe pastremainsrelevantto conOne
finds
thatseveralquitedifferentargumentscan be
temporarypolitics.
quickly
usedto linkthe Progressive
erawiththe present.I findmyself,again,on the agency
endof thepathdependence-agency
continuuminwhichhistoricalresearchbecomes
a meansof imagingandfacilitating
politicalchange.8
One of the most strikingcomparisonsbetweenthe Progressiveeraandcontemporaryimmigrationpoliticsis the very differentlanguagesused for the respective
debates.Duringthe Progressiveera, the languageof ethnicitywas only justbeing
"invented"
and had not yet become the principaldiscoursefor describingimmiRather,a quitedifferentdiscoursedominateddiscussionsof difgrants'experience.9
ferenceduringthe nineteenthcenturyin which the principalclassificatory
scheme
The nineteenth-century
compared"thenatural"and "historicraces."'0
languageof
notionof the heritability
of acquired
"historicraces"drew heavilyon Lamarckian
in which climate,geography,and even social arrangementswere
characteristics
8. Thissectiondrawson mycurrentresearchon ethnicityandAmericanracialpolitics.Fora preview
of the largerargument,see VictoriaHattam,"Ethnicity,
RacialDiscourse,andCoalitionPolitics,"
paperpreparedfordeliveryat theAPSAmeetingsin Atlanta,GA,September1-5,1999.
9. Fortheinventionof ethnicity,
see WernerSollors,ed., TheInventionof Ethnicity
(NewYork:Oxford
Press,1989),intro.
University
10. Forfascinatingdiscussionsof eighteenthand nineteenthcenturyracialdiscourse,see GeorgeW.
in AmericanSocialScience,1890-1915,"
in his Race, Culture,and Evolution:
Stocking,"Lamarckianism
(NewYork:FreePress,1968);and NicholasHudson,"From'Nation'
Essaysin the Historyof Anthropology
to 'Race':TheOriginof RacialClassification
in Eighteenth-Century
Studies
Thought,"
Eighteenth-Century
29, 3 (1996):247-64.

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Victoria Hattam 337

thoughtto providethe basisof racialdifferenceoverlongperiodsof time.Mostnineelitesdidnotdistinguishsharplybetweennotionsof raceandnation,

teenth-century
norbetweennotionsof raceandethnicity;ratherthe term"historicraces"was used
to referto all of the above. Confrontingthese quite differentlanguagesof race
quicklyhighlightsthe historicalspecificityof ourown notionsof raceand ethnicity.
I immediatelywant to know when the discursiveshiftfrom"historicraces"to ethnicityoccurred?Whatwas at stakein thischangein discourse?How didthe different linguisticframingsof differenceshape immigrants'interestsand alliances?
Answeringthese questionshas takenme back to the Progressiveerawhere I find
myselfagainturningto historyas a sourceof agencyand change.
Turningto the Progressiveera quicklydenaturalizesour twentieth-century
notionsof raceand ethnicityand placesquestionsof socialand politicalconstructioncenterstage.Ourtwentieth-century
conceptionsof raceand ethnicitynow are
revealedas historicalparticularities
ratherthanbeingseen as transhistorical
systems
of humanclassification.Recoveringthe differentlanguagesof racethatdominated
discourse,thus, serves to repoliticizenotionsof race and ethnineteenth-century
nicityin our own time. Moreover,tracingthe shift in racialdiscoursefroma language of "historicraces"to thatof ethnicitynot only denaturalizesthe present,it
also helpsto clarifythe particular
racialdiscourse.
meaningof ourtwentieth-century
or
the
discursive
however,does not
Identifying mapping contemporary
topography,
mean thatwe are destinedto repeatit; nor must our currentpoliticalchoices be
determinedor limitedby this historically
constructedterrain.On the contrary,conI
as
see
is
era
it, engagedin reworkingthe Progressive
temporaryimmigrantpolitics,
settlement.Narrowlyconceivednotionsof raceandethnicity,manyhaveargued,no
longercapturethe fullrangeand heterogeneityof the Americanpopulation,especiallygiventhe enormousdemographicchangethathas takenplaceduringthe last
threedecades."Distinctions
betweenraceandethnicitythatwere carvedout during
the Progressiveera are currentlyunderattackfrommanyquarters;whether,or in
whatways,our languagesof differencewill be reconfigured
in the twenty-first
centhe Progressiveeralegacy
turyis not yet clear.Butboth identifyingand articulating
helpsto clarifythe terrainon which the currentstrugglesarebeingwaged.Again,I
do not see, norwould I expectto find,agreementover how questionsof raceand
ethnicityought to be reworked;many very differentvisions currentlyare being
advocated.WhatI am suggesting,however,is thatall advocateswould do well to
understandthe Progressiveera legacyso thattheycan moreeffectivelyidentifythe
variouschangesneededto realizetheirparticular
vision.'2
11. Manyhavepointedout the liminallocationof AsianAmericans,and HispanicswithinAmerican
ethnicandracialclassificatory
schema.Forexample,see PeterSkerry,
MexicanAmericans:TheAmbivalent
HarvardUniversity
of Asian
Press,1993);and ClaireJean Kim,"TheTriangulation
Minority(Cambridge:
Politicsand Society27, 1 (March1999):105-138.
Americans,"
12. Fora briefreviewof contemporary
culturalandpolitiargumentsovercontemporary
immigrants'
cal identification,
see Hattam,"Ethnicity,
RacialDiscourse,andCoalitionPolitics,"
5-10.

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ANDPOLITICAL
338 HISTORY,
CHANGE
AGENCY,

Politics and Presentism

Studentsof historyoften are remindedof the dangersof presentistarguments
aboutthe past.Inorderto understandanyhistoricalera,manyclaim,we mustsuspend our presentdaycategoriesand assumptionsand recoverinsteadthe distinctivelanguagesandworldviews of otherhistoricalperiods.Onlyafterunderstanding
the paston its own terms,so the argumentruns,willwe be able to assess the historicaldynamicswithanydegreeof subtletyandwithoutsimplyimposingourown
valuesandassumptionsonto the past.Myviewof historyas a sourceof agencyoutlinedaboveleavesme in an ambiguouspositionin relationto the dangersinherent
in presentism.On the one hand,the importanceof historyas a means of denaturalizingthe presenthingeson our abilityto rediscoverdifferentworldsin the past,
and as such is verymuch in the anti-presentist
camp. Recoveringthe differentlanof
that
class
and
ethnicity prevailedduringthe nineteenthcenturyhas been
guages
essentialin my own workand has been the keyvehiclethroughwhich I haveidentifiedthe dynamicsof politicalhistory.Yet,my claimthathistoryprovidesa means
of openingup contemporarypoliticalchoice pointsin a ratherdifferentdirection.
Namely,that historicalresearchis inevitablyshaped by our own contemporary
politicalconcerns.Perhapsit is a mistake,especiallyforpoliticalscientists,to diminish the linksbetweenthe presentand the past.Indeed,I thinka case can be made
orientedpoliticalsciencemakinga virtueof theirpresentistconcerns.
forhistorically
This would requirethat we give a more explicitaccount of our contemporary
assumptionsand concernsand thatwe readilyacknowledgetheirmotivatingforce
in our historicalwork.Framinghistoricalresearchas a self consciousresponseto
issuesin own timeswould, I think,help foregroundquestionsof agencyand politicalchangeas keyto even the most antiquarian
projectsof historicalresearchand
mighthelp focus more sharplythe distinctiveprojectembodiedin the historical
turnwithinpoliticalscience.'3

13. Mythinkingon presentismhasbeeninfluencedbythreeessays:JoanScott,"TheEvidenceof ExpeSci"TheStateto the Rescue?Political

rience,"Critical
Inquiry17,4 (Summer1991):773-97;IraKatznelson,
SocialResearch59, 4 (Winter1992):719-37;andAnneNorton,"95Theses
ence and HistoryReconnect,"
on Politics,Culture,andMethod,"
manuscript.

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