Two Themes:

History is Argument:

Arthur Millerv.

McCarthyism

The City on the Hillvs.

American Individualistic Pragmatism

History:Understanding the Past

Judging the Present

Influencing the Future

Have you no sense of decency, sir?At long last, have you left no sense of decency?

-- Jack Welch

City on the Hill

Theocratic Communitarian Utopia

Declension

1) Those darn kids2) Growth of commerce3) Breakdown of town system/social control

4) Frontier Individualism5) Patriarchal breakdown

6) Halfway Covenant

Salem Witch Trials

1) Attempt to recapture purity of purpose

2) Attempt to roll back declension3) Town v. country

4) Town v. city5) Parochial v. secular

Backfires!Loss of faith in religious leaders

Accelerates secularism, commercialism

Miller: Analogy NOT historyHistorian’s impossible goal?

Miller’s interpretation:Hysteria v. Rationalism