308
PARTISAN REVIEW
possible meanings of history from what it has meant to men in ages
more congenial to it?" He hopes to draw his affirmative answer to this
question-for it is a rhetorical question-from the answer to his other
question: how did the " father of modern scientific history" combine
professionalism with "his life-long devotion to human values?" He
answers these questions on a formal level: Ranke did, after years of
groping, reconcile his passion for documentary research with the
formal task of writing universal history. That Krieger does not concern
himself with the ideology which informed Ranke's enduring urge
to
treat general questions merely indicates that he has a different set of
values to defend.
As
a liberal in America in 1977, Krieger stands in the
same relation to his society as Ranke did to his-a conservative one.
Ranke
thus turns out
to
be a book of general interest in spite of its
narrow substantive focus. Krieger writes to defend the role of history in
general education, especially from the apostles of relevance. For this
purpose it is a carefully conceived and well-executed piece of scholar–
ship. It is even relevant. It might well serve the purposes of conserva–
tives in the discussion over curricul urn reform.
It
is especially relevant
to the question of whether world history should not replace Western
civilization in university curricula. But to accomplish his task, Krieger
has had to disobey the first canon of historicism by suppressing the
historical context of Ranke's work and concentrating upon the abstract
rather than the concrete. This is an illuminating demonstration of how
problematic the defense of "objective" professional history has become.
CARL PLETSCH
PILGRIM MOTHERS
ON KEEPING WOMEN. By Hortense
Callsher. Arbor House. $9.95.
THE HIGH COST OF LIVING. By Marge Piercy.
Harper & Row. $10.
I HARDLY KNEW YOU. By Edna O'Brien.
Doubleday. $7.95.
The front cover of each of these novels features a woman's
face. Its expression varies from Mona Lisa
to
sensitive Valkyrie
to
yielding vamp; the attached quantities of hair are correspondingly
serpentine, helmet-like, and soft. Although the many faces of Eve
compose an inevitable (or unavoidable) image of our time, the three
