Students gathered to hear Kennedy, the co-author of their textbook titled The American Pageant, speak about the nature of history as a way of understanding the world.
The bulk of Kennedy’s presentation centered around the work of Thucydides, a preeminent Athenian chronicler who wrote one of the first accounts of history, The History of the Peloponnesian War.
“The History of the Peloponnesian War is really the first recognizable kind of history that’s what we’ve tried to write ever since,” Kennedy said. “Before Thucydides, history was more about myth-making than being a reliable account of events.”
Kennedy, who is a professor of history at Stanford University, read and analyzed a famous quote from Thucydides as he introduced the purpose of his historical chronicle.
“With reference to the narrative of events, it rests partly on what I saw myself, partly on what others saw for me, the accuracy of the report being always tried by the most severe and detailed tests possible,” Kennedy read. “The absence of romance in my history will, I fear, detract somewhat from its interest; but I shall be content if it is judged useful by those inquirers who desire an exact knowledge of the past as an aid to the interpretation of the future.”
When Kennedy finished, he remarked, “These are powerful words. I’m going to read it to you again, but not before we explore the context of his [Thucydides’s] time period.”
According to Kennedy, Thucydides tried to distinguish history from the other domains and fields of knowledge, including philosophy, literature, mathematics and science.
“Thucydides’s history was an empirical and factual account with verifiable details,” Kennedy said. “It’s not philosophy, because philosophy appeals to abstract ideals like justice. History is about concrete facts.”
“It’s not literature, because historians are not free to make things up,” Kennedy continued. “They cannot change details to make the account a page-turner; you need empirical evidence to back up history.”
“It’s not science or mathematics, because the ultimate goal of science or mathematics is to discover fundamental laws and truths that can be applied to every instance everywhere,” he said. “History does not have that ambition. There are no universal laws for human behavior.”
To contest that last point about history’s dissimilarity to science, junior Scott Zhuge pointed out that there are some trends in history that have consistently been true. He cited the example of third parties: in the history of American politics, third parties have never won a presidential election but can have a significant influence on the positions of one or both of the major political parties.
Kennedy acknowledged that Zhuge’s generalization was fairly accurate for American history, but it still cannot be a principle that holds true in every instance around the world at any time period, as a scientific principle such as the law of conservation of energy does.
“Sure, that’s a pretty good generalization for 200 years of American history, but that can’t necessarily be applied to every instance in human history over the last 5,000 years,” Kennedy said. “Look at Britain just a few weeks ago; a third party had a significant influence on the outcome of votes and is now partially in power.”
To conclude, Kennedy elaborated on a quote from a 20th century British philosopher, who cited becoming “a man different from all other men” as one of his reasons for studying history.
“We [historians] disagree; that’s how we stay in business,” Kennedy said. “But we try to be self-conscious about why we see events this way to figure out what prior judgments or values we’re bringing in. That’s how we learn about ourselves.”
Seniors Gracie Dulik and Sam Herzog listened to Kennedy’s presentation as juniors, but decided to return this year to listen to him again. They noticed that the introduction and theme of his presentation remained the same, but there were some slight shifts in content.
“The things he said about the differences between history and science are new,” Herzog said. “But the whole presentation was remarkable and breathtaking as usual.”
Dulik and Herzog also noted that the questions from students this year were more intellectual.
“Last year, we focused way more on Pageant, and this year the students asked more about foreign policy and history in general,” Dulik said, referring to the questions last year about the numerous double entendres in the textbook.
Overall, students were impressed with Kennedy’s presentation, which gave them much food for thought.
“I thought he [Kennedy] was a fantastic public speaker,” junior Chirag Krishna said. “The way and speed with which he came up with examples and counterexamples to answer students’ questions and rebuttals was really impressive.”