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Historical Title: ECONOMIC DETERMINISM, IDEOLOGY, AND THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION (1974) It is part of the inescapable condition of the historian that he must make estimates and judgments about human motivation even though he cannot ground his judgments in absolute and apodictic certainty. If, for example, we find that Nelson Rockefeller made a secret gift of $650,000 to Dr. William J. Ronan, we can choose to interpret Rockefeller's motivation in one of at least two ways: we can conclude, as did that eminent student of contemporary politics Malcolm Wilson, that Nelson made this and similar gifts purely as "an act of love"; or we can conclude that some sort of political *quid pro quo* was involved in the transaction. In my view, the good historian (1) cannot escape making a judgment of motivation, and (2) will opt for the latter political judgment. Those historians who have made the realistic and what I hold to be the correct judgment have often been condemned as "materialists", "economic determinists", or even "Marxists", but I contend that what they have simply done was to use their common sense, their correct apprehension of reality. In some matters, where the causal chain of economic interest to action is simple and direct, almost no one denies the overriding motive of economic interest. Thus, when the steel industry lobbies for a tariff or an import quota, and despite the fact that their *stated* motivations will include every bit of blather about the "public interest" or the "national security" that they can think of (even "an act of love" if they thought they could get away with it), it would be a rash historian indeed who did not conclude that the prime motivation of the steel industry was to gain higher profits and restrict foreign competition. Similarly with Nelson's "loving" largesse. There will be few charges of "Marxism" hurled in these situations. The problem comes when the actions involve longer and more complex causal chains: when, for example, we contemplate the reasons for the adoption of the American Constitution, or the Marshall Plan, or entry into World War I. It is in these matters that the focus on economic motives becomes somehow unpatriotic and disreputable. Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread |
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