Arnold Toynbee has been attributed with the saying: "History is just one damn thing after another." This is the sort of statement that makes history teachers cringe. We know that it isn't true. Still, if we fail to offer a larger vision to history, students will easily and understandably fall into the "one damn thing after another" trap. I do not claim to have the solution to this problem, but I do offer the following general ways to view history. Using these theories, we can perhaps relate events in a more meaningful way. Of course, each of these theories has limitations, and discussion of the theories themselves is a great way to see that history is interpretive, and often has assumptions or agendas that have more to do with the present than the past. Whoa! Realizing points like that already bring us beyond Mr. Toynbee's remark!
Linear Progress
Things are getting better as time goes on. The story of history
is one of human progress. Most students subscribe to this view, assuming
that the present is automatically "better" than the past. Proponents of
this theory usually point to technology as proof of progress. Inventions
have made life easier and better. Today's computers, for instance are faster
and easier to use than those of just 10 years ago. Linear Progress
theory has "more!" as its mantra.
Linear Decline
This is the "good old days" theory of history. Things were better
in the past, and have gotten worse as time passes. Linear Decline
people believe that the world used to be simpler and more intimate.
It was a cheaper world, too. Remember when a soda cost a nickel?
Remember when you could get a house with a $500 down payment? Ah,
those were the days...
Cyclical
Everything goes in cycles. This is easy to see in daily life:
you get up, go to work, come home, go to bed, and do the same thing the
next day. In terms of history, the idea is that we go through cycles
of economics (boom and bust), politics (conservative then liberal then
conservative...), nations (the rise and fall of empires), and so on.
It's all been done before.
Static
Nothing changes. All change is transparent; the underlying conditions
are just the same old thing. The Static Theory most often points
to "human nature" as proof of its validity. People are essentially the
same, no matter what the time or place. This theory usually is quite negative
in its outlook; human nature is pretty rotten. There has always been
(and always will be) war, murder, and injustice.
Last Page Update: December 2005