Year: 1978
Type: article
Abstract: THE STUDY OF AMERICAN VIOLENCE in recent years has been greatly enriched by research in archival sources.It is now generally accepted that among the nations that most resemble us in political, social, and economic character we are the most violent.In modern times America has led its peer-group of nations in the rate of homicide, the number of lynchings, and the incidence of urban riots, as well as in racial violence, industrial violence, and criminal activity. 1 These aspects of human violence are not original to America; they are replicated on a lesser scale in other modern, industrial nations.But there is one type of violence that is distinctively American, our turbulent frontier vigilantism.2 All of the aspects of American violence (including vigilantism) have been illumined in the last twenty years by notable historical studies based on archival research.Two trends have converged to strengthen the linkage between the study of American violence and archival research.One trend has been the emergence of American violence as a sub-field of American history.3 This is something quite new, a trend heavily nurtured by public concern over the violence of the 1960s: the civil rights movement and its related violence; the black ghetto riots of the time; the wave of presidential and political assassinations; and the anti-war and campus violence.The other trend has been the transformation, the broadening, of archives, especially the national and state archives, as centers of research.Before about 1960, archival centers were mainly the bastions of historical researchers in traditional political and military history.The old nineteenth-century maxim that "history is past politics" was generally perceived as largely defining the scope of archival research resources.But by the early and middle 1960s an important change was underway.The rich provenance of archives collections in the records of the life of the people-vital statistics, land and tax records, occupational status, distribution of wealth, evidence of geographic and social mobility, and the episodes of social conflict and misbehavior-began to be recognized.And as historians began to turn away from the more narrowly tradi-The author is Beekman Professor of Northwest and Pacific History, at the University of Oregon.The article is taken from his address delivered at the luncheon meeting of the Society of American Archivists held in New York City on April 13, 1978, in conjunction with the annual meeting of the Organization of American Historians.
Source: The American Archivist
Author: Richard Brown
Institution: University of Oregon
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W2292103181