Philosophy of History and the Use of Analytical Lenses

I have been reading about philosophies of history recently and I find these to be fascinating. Three of the philosophies I read about are those of Whitehead, Marx, and Toynbee. Each philosophy differs teleologically, that is to say that each philosophy sees the fate of the world leading in different directions.

Whitehead believed that humans are presented with two choices, advance or decadence; to fight against either of these choices is to fight against the very essence of the universe. Marx believed that "the history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles. What the bourgeoisie therefore produces, above all, are its own grave diggers. Its fall and the victory of the proletariat are equally inevitable." Toynbee's philosophy was grounded in deeply Christian values of the crucifixion of Christ and his resurrection and the meaning of these events today and in the future. Toynbee also believed that "it is the historical function of civilizations to serve, by their downfalls, as stepping stones to a progressive process of the revelation of always deeper religious insight."

In the research that I have been doing and in my graduate level historiography class, we studied philosophies of history and the general consensus (which I accept) was that these philosophies are untenable. History and the events that make up history are comprised of many different unique episodes and to say that there is a unifying theme to all of history is incorrect. Many philosophies need to be applied to history to make any sense of the events of our world.

In my research on the Ottawa Indians, I use the analytical tool of colonialism but I have also used other tools in studying the Ottawa. While writing my thesis I turned to economic tools to help me understand the Ottawa economy. There are many other tools that could be used to unearth the history of the Ottawa in the Maumee Valley, however, I find colonialism to be the most productive analytical tool.

I love historiography and looking for new analytical lenses for viewing history. One of the most fascinating aspects of history to me is the way you can change your perspective on a certain event and see something new and refreshing in an old topic. I am really looking forward to attending NAU due to their focus on the philosophy of history and theory, I think that receiving a graduate education at this school will be difficult but an amazing challenge.

Shared Iconography With Other Nations

America was not the only country in which settlers loaded their possessions into covered wagons and set off to conquer the lands of indigenous peoples. This was a pattern that emerged in many different regions of the world. As this image illustrates, the top picture shows a scene from Argentina, the middle image is from America and the bottom scene comes from South Africa. In all of these countries the covered wagon was employed to bring the possessions necessary to establish new colonial outposts in the pursuit of conquering indigenous peoples.

Studying the History of the American West

I have been studying the American West for the past year and a half and it has been a very rewarding experience. I am interested in colonialism and frontiers for what they show us about how some cultures can come into conflict with each other and what happens when they do. I am currently working on turning my thesis on the Ottawa Indians of the Maumee Valley into an article which focuses on the colonial efforts of Americans to take possession of Northwest Ohio.
More updates will be added as I progress towards this goal.