The Historian's net

ISBN O 86981 235 1

Inaugural Lecture, University of South Africa

The eminent British historian, G.R. Elton, has stated that he does not know what inaugural lectures are for.1 Some historians on these occasions have lectured on their special areas of interest in the past and have managed thus to express implicitly their approach to their subject. The majority of historians - including Professor Elton - have used their inaugural lectures to issue explicit statements of their personal views regarding the theory or practice or present position of their subject. New professors in other disciplines, it seems, are less inclined than historians to venture into theoretical waters on these occasions. I am not sure whether this means that historians are more introspective or that they are actually assailed by greater doubts about their subject than say psychologists, sociologists or lawyers are about theirs, or whether they have taken Pieter Geyl's definition of history as an unending argument,2 into the theoretical sphere as well. The American historian, H.S. Commager, has actually contended that historians argue so much about matters such as: 'What is the nature of history? What is the use of history? What is it that we are about?' that it has become something of a public scandal.3 I doubt if it really has - but if it has, I propose to add to the scandal.