History as literature, and other essays

by Theodore Roosevelt

PREFACE

In this volume I have gathered certain addresses I made before the American Historical Association, the University of Oxford, the University of Berlin, and the Sorbonne at Paris, together with six essays I wrote for The Outlook, and one that I wrote for The Century.

In these addresses and essays I have discussed not merely literary but also historical and scientific subjects, for my thesis is that the domain of literature must be ever more widely extended over the domains of history and science. There is nothing which in this preface I can say to elaborate or emphasize what I have said on this subject in the essays themselves.

Theodore Roosevelt.

Sagamore Hill,
July 4, 1913.

CONTENTS

	PAGE
History as Literature	[1]
Biological Analogies in History	[37]
The World Movement	[95]
Citizenship in a Republic	[135]
The Thraldom of Names	[175]
Productive Scholarship	[195]
Dante and the Bowery	[217]
The Foundations of the Nineteenth Century	[231]
The Search for Truth in a Reverent Spirit	[245]
The Ancient Irish Sagas	[275]
An Art Exhibition	[301]
⁂ Three chapters, “Biological Analogies in History,” “The WorldMovement,” and “Citizenship in a Republic,” were included in the volumeentitled “African and European Addresses.”

HISTORY AS LITERATURE

HISTORY AS LITERATURE[1]

There has been much discussion as to whether history should not henceforth be treated as a branch of science rather than of literature. As with most such discussions, much of the matter in dispute has referred merely to terminology. Moreover, as regards part of the discussion, the minds of the contestants have not met, the propositions advanced by the two sides being neither mutually incompatible nor mutually relevant. There is, however, a real basis for conflict in so far as science claims exclusive possession of the field.