British historian Peter Burke has written many books and essays exploring the history of knowledge. This new prosopographical study examines the careers of 500 polymaths over the last 500 years.  During this period of time, typically referred to as the “modern age,” learning increasingly was organized around an intellectual division of labor and the proliferation of super-specialists.  Burke’s polymaths worked in multiple fields, now considered completely separate disciplines, but his subjects insisted instead on the unity of knowledge.  Burke argues that, for this heresy, historians have generally treated polymaths with contempt.  Labeled “specialists in generalities,” polymaths are typically condemned for Read more

With a country as large and as diverse as the United States, writing a truly national history, of any kind, is a tall order indeed.  By necessity, shortcuts have to be taken, entire regions have to be underemphasized or left out altogether, and ever-present exceptions to the rules have to be minimized.  Forty years ago, while I was on a post-doctoral fellowship in Norway, one of my Norwegian cousins used to ask me questions like, “What is the weather like today in America?” While I struggled to come up with an answer that encompassed the meteorological realities of Hawaii, Wyoming, Read more