960
ledge, what forgiveness?" He must
so place himself in relation to his
subject that perspective no longer
exists. Like Marquis James's esti–
mate of the insurance man, when
he speaks of the future, he must
mean today.
The more modern society tends
toward that which is fearful and
murderous, the more is it institu–
tionalized by the Academy. The
day of the dilettante in history is
over; what exists now is a private
world that turns in upon itself. At
some future date one can perhaps
expect to see a history of Buchen–
wald, where the placement of the
barbed wire is noted, the number
of guards and machine-guns ac–
curately counted, the mechanism
of the gas-chambers set down. It
LIBERAL PRESS, INC.
printers of
PARTISAN REVIEW
•
80 FOURTH AVENUE
NEW YORK 3, N. Y.
will be an all-inclusive work, where
only the mass graves are missing.
So sensitivized has the technology
of history become that the his–
torian is numb before it. The ap–
paratus has taken and swallowed
him. He struggles with time, keeps
Gibbon and Burckhardt on his lib–
rary shelves, promises to round out
the gaps in his own knowledge. But
there is time only for committees,
a hurried research paper or at
best the editing of the papers of a
New Deal bureaucrat. When the
next sabbatical comes he will be
on hire, for there are no more
in–
tangibles in history. Reflection is
sombre, and each month the jour–
nals and the bulletins arrive fresh
on his desk.
Seated before them for a mo–
ment, he may become an intel–
lectual Walter Mitty, doing battle
with Mathiez and Aulard, grand
concepts rolling across his percep–
tion. But later there will be more
time, for after all, the story of
Swift and Company is valid
ECO–
NOMIC HISTORY,
and the entrance
of a student sends him back to
his
mail.
Wallace Markfield
PR EDITOR needs
2'h-3
room
apartment, unfurnished, prefer–
ably
in the Village. Write
William Barrett,
clo
PR, or
call
WAt~ins
9-0299.
