Consensus History, Annales School, New Left

What was consensus history and why did it become the preferred method in the United States in the mid-twentieth century? How did the new approaches of the Annales school and the New Left challenge consensus history?

            Consensus history was a movement in the 1950’s and 1960’s that argued a much less ‘progressive’ view of history in the United States. Instead of an America based on politics, conflicts and social class, consensus historians argued, “that the success and progress of the United States was due to its unique democratic system, which encouraged and fostered consensus among liberals, conservatives, and other groups within society.”[1] After WWII and the infiltration of communistic ideas into the country, the majority of the United States wanted to get back to a regular routine of an amplified typical middle-class American value system.

            Consensus history was doomed from its conception because looking back on history with rose colored glasses will never allow you to see the entire picture. As historians all over the world argued about which way to study history was best, the French began the Annales school which focused more on the long term progression of humans throughout history. Fernand Braudel created a pyramid that referenced how quickly different historical aspects of the world changed. On its base were the geographic and environmental changes, in its middle were the social and economic structures and cycles, and at its apex, “specific events, political, diplomatic, and biographical history.”[2] The New left was a movement inspired by the Marxist movement that focused on social and political injustices regarding highly controversial subjects like women’s rights, and the civil rights movement.

            So while consensus history focused on the positive, and the Annales School was focusing on a more philosophical view of history, the New Left movement focused on all the injustice in the political, social, and economic systems of the world.

Work Cited:

Gilderhus, Mark T. History and Historians: A Historiographical Introduction. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2010.

Hoefferle, Caroline. The Essential Historiography Reader. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2010.

---

[1] Caroline Hoefferle, The Essential Historiography Reader (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2011), 119.

[2] Hoefferle, 142.