ABSTRACT
In a recent review of twentieth-century historiography, respected historian Donald Kelley made oblique references to the “analytical philosophy of history,” lumping Maurice Mandelbaum incongruously with F. H. Bradley and Morton White, citing its “unitary and propositional, not to say algebraic, conception of truth, and deference to Hempel and the Covering Lawyers,” a philosophy which was furthermore “largely unconcerned with history as a project of human inquiry and self-understanding.”1 Unfortunately, such weird characterizations of Mandelbaum as a blind and unwavering anti-relativist are all too common, leaving one to wonder if his works were even read.2 In the current climate it is almost as if the fact that he entertained objectivism at all discounts him for further consideration.
