But studying the great minds in isolation is like trying to do ecology by examining mounted trophies alone
“But studying the great minds in isolation is like trying to do ecology by examining mounted trophies alone” - Lively essay by Jason Kuznick, “The Law of the Artichoke: Toward a Social History for Classical Liberals.”
The historiography of mentalité in the mid 20th-century sense–and worse, the historiography of material conditions–is so colored by Marxist assumptions that classical liberals seldom want anything to do with it. More times than I can count, I have seen conservative or classical liberal historians deride the very idea of studying chairs, dresses, bread, horses–or artichokes.
Ideas, we hear again and again. Study the ideas, because the rest is just a lot of Marxist distraction.
Nonsense, I say.
Good stuff. Reminds me of something Frederick Turner said about (politicized) gender studies once: The tragedy is there’s a real field there.
