Historians should rescue losers of history from posterity’s condescension.

Evidence

‘I am seeking to rescue the poor stockinger, the Luddite cropper, the “obsolete” hand-loom weaver, the “utopian” artisan, and even the deluded follower of Joanna Southcott, from the enormous condescension of posterity. Their crafts and traditions may have been dying. Their hostility to the new industrialism may have been backward-looking. Their communitarian ideals may have been foolhardy. But they lived through these times of acute social disturbance, and we did not.’ — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 1752

Categorization

• XREF: The ‘enormous condescension of posterity’ is a classic E. P. Thompson line; it pairs with existentialism’s insistence on lived concrete situations over abstract judgment — and with ‘We’/‘Things Fall Apart’ themes of the erased other. — connects to: History’s losers and leftovers transcend society more than its victors do — Theodor W. Adorno, Minima Moralia: Reflections from…, 170; New theory requires recovering historical events erased from Western historiography; New theory requires new history that resurrects suppressed events — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 1426
• SEED: Angle: Thompson’s historiographic empathy as an existentialist-style commitment to taking the lived experience of the marginalized seriously.
• APHORISMS: ‘But they lived through these times of acute social disturbance, and we did not’ — a durable counsel about judging those who preceded us on their own terms.

Broader Connections

• New theory requires recovering historical events erased from Western historiography #expands (0.75)
• New theory requires new history that resurrects suppressed events #expands (0.75) — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 1426