H I S T O R I O G R A P H Y - C A R L B E C K E R
Dr Robert A. Hatch - University of Florida
Becker, Carl Lotus (1873 - 1945)
I mportantly, Becker wrote a variety of works in history, on topics in American and European history. He left his mark on both. His two major books were in US and in European history, The Declaration of Independence (1922; 1942) and The Heavenly City of the Eighteenth-Century Philosophers
B ecker's doctoral dissertation, "The History of Political Parties in the Province of New York" (1909) established a view about US Colonial history that emerged as all-but canonical. In brief, Becker argued that given the sharp social division in colonial society the elite and lower classes, the American Revolution was less a war for independence as it marked a domestic war for equality. The so-called Becker Thesis was local in it argument, aimed at New York state, but its effect was taken to represent other colonies as well. If Becker's work in US history had a broad appeal, his most noted work in European history was destined to become a controversial classic, notably his The Heavenly City (1932). Here again Becker argued against tradition, now asserting that Enlightenment philosophe were not so modern as other historians assumed, that in effect, while they may have challenged traditional religious dogma they in fact simply replace one kind of religion for another, namely, zealous belief in Reason. Becker's students eventually wrote a number of articles, a number of which appeared as a book, discussing Becker's views on reason, relativism, and the historical craft. | |
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