The Iconoclastic Eclecticism of Trigant Burrow

Abstract

There are two kinds of history: popular history and critical history. The first might be called surface history; it is taught in schools and preserved in calendars; it is always organized around single dates, names, and places—“In 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue.” Critical or scholarly history looks more deeply into influences and conditions and numbers of people. From critical history we learn about the multitude of influences and cross-influences that shaped the past and continue to emerge in the present. We learn about inconsistencies and discrepancies and mixed, tentative historical interpretations. Popular history tends to be fixed while critical history always is being reformulated as new influences are discovered and new interpretations are offered and as happenings in the present give a different weighting to what is more and less important.