In the Declaration of Independence Thomas Jefferson became the
first
American to put history to work to create a nation. He blazed a path that
historians have been following ever since. Consider the difficulty Jefferson
faced. Different events were happening in thirteen intensely local and
isolated colonies among people with different traditions, languages,
religions, and circumstances. Jefferson turned these scattered events into
a national narrative. Behind these individual acts by agents of the British
Crown aimed at different colonies was a single menace, Jefferson insisted,
that should inspire these isolated individuals to discover and act upon
what they shared as bearers of the traditional liberties of Englishmen.
To
introduce his stunning attempt to fit isolated events into a single narrative,
Jefferson began by boldly declaring that it was “necessary for one
people
to dissolve the political bonds that have connected them with another.”
The colonists, Jefferson proclaimed, were “one people.” Jefferson
knew
that the colonists were not “one people.” But in order to invent
one
nation, Jefferson had to invent one people, and in order to invent one
people Jefferson had to invent one history that might unite that “one
people.” It has been hard work ever since.From 1776 until sometime in the 1960s or 1970s, it was possible to
believe – indeed, it was hard to question – that nations were,
or even
should be, the embodiment of people's destinies – that nations
could
express their identities, solve their problems, and be entrusted with their
dreams and fates. The modern practice of history was born a couple of
centuries ago to serve this process, to invent narratives and persuade
peoples to interpret their personal experiences within national terms and
narratives.
MyStory: Scary Head…
