ABSTRACT
Man is caught up in circumstances which interweave abiding aspects of the human condition—about which the past ought to teach something—and, equally, with endless change and variety where the past can mislead us. There is nothing new about our need to balance the claims of increased private income against the claims of public welfare; justice to the disadvantaged against public order; national security and international order against the claims for resources and talents on the domestic scene. Some of our historians are looking again at the role of violence in the story of our national life to vindicate, in a sense, its legitimacy as part of the past and the present. A work of history can be an effective political pamphlet. The revisionist contribution to history will be measured—like revisionist contributions of the past—by new data brought to light and given meaning.
