Correction:
I found my copy of Consciousness and Society and see that I didn’t get very far
into it. I’m “fairly sure” I read “Sophisticated Rebels” but believe
(imagine?) I read some other things by Hughes as well.
From: lit-ideas-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:lit-ideas-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On ;
Behalf Of Lawrence Helm
Sent: Sunday, February 16, 2020 2:53 PM
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Gerhard Weinberg and Hari Seldon
David,
Since Asimov used the term Psychohistory in his Foundation stories in the
1940s, serialized as individual stories, and then collected and published them
together as Foundation in 1951 all of which preceded the references to
“legitimate” Psycohistory that you referenced and I just read about in
Wikipedia, I suspect those majoring in Psychohistory suffered a good deal of
collegiate abuse: The SF specialty, Asimov’s acolytes, etc.
I have several books by Kegan but am not sure I have the one you refer to. I
went to the book-shelf where I thought it was and instead found Jonathan
Dimbleby’s The Battle of the Atlantic, How the Allies Won the War, which I see
I began but didn’t finish.
The book involving sea power that most impressed me recently was Shattered
Sword, the Untold Story of the Battle of Midway by Jonathan Parshall and
Anthony Tully. By “untold” they mean they are heavily using Japanese documents
and histories in their narrative, something histories written in English
hitherto didn’t do. This book was published in 2005; so it will be old hat to
legitimate historians, but it impressed the heck out of me when I read it a few
months ago.
They mention Mahan as influencing the Japanese negatively. Not that the
Americans were that quick to emphasize the Aircraft Carrier in their battle
groups, but they were quicker than the Japanese.
At one time I was especially impressed by H. Stuart Hughes – read his
Consciousness and Society and Sophisticated Rebels, and maybe something else –
not sure, but he did impress me – more than Weinberg has thus far. J
Lawrence
From: lit-ideas-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:lit-ideas-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On ;
Behalf Of david ritchie
Sent: Sunday, February 16, 2020 1:47 PM
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Gerhard Weinberg and Hari Seldon
On Feb 16, 2020, at 12:40 PM, Lawrence Helm <lawrencehelm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I haven’t heard the term “psychohistorian” since reading Isaac Asimov’s
Foundation. I thought of that and Hari Seldon, but then I thought, surely not.
Surely Weinberg is being serious. As David Ritchie comments, historians keep
advancing (or something like that). Maybe modern historians use the term
(knowingly borrowed from Asimov) to refer to historians who delve into
psychological elements of a major-person’s history. Shoot, I don’t know.
I open the book yesterday and found that I’m in for more than a thousand pages.
In preparation for next Friday I must read Keegan’s book about naval warfare,
so I’ll be behind you for a while. Psychohistory was developed by Freudians,
among them my Ph.D. advisor H. Stuart Hughes. His second wife Judith Hughes
wrote about a cohort of European leaders but the books that gave the discipline
what attention it received were Erik Erikson, “Young Man Luther” way back in
1958 and a multi-volume study of nineteenth century bourgeois life by Peter
Gay. I checked to see if the Journal of Psychohistory is still alive and well.
It is.
https://psychohistory.com/
https://history.ucsd.edu/people/faculty/hughes.html
I haven’t read any in a long time.
David Ritchie,
Portland, Oregon
