Americans, perhaps more than most people, have pondered the question of who they are and what their country is. Edmund Morgan More Quotes by Edmund Morgan More Quotes From Edmund Morgan I made a point of always teaching undergraduates because they are not a captive audience. . . . I always tried out my research ideas first in the classroom to get feedback from people who didn't have to listen to me if I didn't make it interesting. Edmund Morgan teachingpeopleideas A historian should not be didactic-that is a word that makes my blood run cold. Edmund Morgan coldrunningblood The British government had not engaged in any serious actual oppression of the colonies before 1774, but it had claimed powers not granted by the governed, powers that made oppression possible, powers that it began to exercise in 1774 in response to colonial denial of them. The Revolution came about not to overthrow tyranny, but to prevent it. Edmund Morgan governmentexercisehistory Children whose curiosity survives parental discipline and who manage to grow up before they blow up are invited to join the Yale faculty. Within the university they go on asking their questions and trying to find the answers ... it is a place where the world's hostility to curiosity can be defied. Edmund Morgan growing-upmenchildren History at its best is vicarious experience. Edmund Morgan vicarioushistory The three hundredth anniversary of the Salem witch trials of 1692 comes at a time when witchcraft commands a scholarly attention that would have been puzzling in 1892 or even in 1792. Edmund Morgan anniversarytrialstimeattention In 1787, many Americans were convinced that the 'perpetual union' they had created in winning independence was collapsing. Six years earlier, in the Articles of Confederation, the thirteen state governments had surrendered extensive powers to a congress of delegates from each state legislature. Edmund Morgan independencecongresswinningyears What was the American Revolution? The people who joined to carry it out had different views of what they had done. Edmund Morgan americanrevolutiondonepeople The American Revolution was carried out in the name of the people, and it was supposedly 'We, the people,' who created the government that Americans still live under. Edmund Morgan livenamegovernmentpeople Both European and American historians have done away with any conceptual limits on what in the past needs and deserves investigating. The result, among other things, has been a flood of works on gender history, black history, and ethnic history of all kinds. Edmund Morgan genderblackhistorypast To make a successful film from a successful play is probably much more difficult than making one from scratch, just as any carpenter will tell you that it is more difficult to restore an old house than to build a comparable new one. Edmund Morgan newwillyouhouse The men and women who occupied the east coast of North America between 1607 and 1800 have been more closely scrutinized than any other collection of people in American history. Edmund Morgan womenmenhistorypeople Thomas Paine, so celebrated and so despised as he traveled through the critical events of his time, has long appealed to biographers. Paine was present at the creation both of the United States and of the French Republic. His eloquence, in the pamphlet 'Common Sense,' propelled the American colonists toward independence. Edmund Morgan independencecreationtimelong The southern colonists were not preoccupied with their own historical significance and mostly did not bother even to make the records of births, marriages, and deaths that they required of themselves by law. Nor did they write accounts of what they were up to for the benefit of posterity. Edmund Morgan ownhistoricallawbother The Puritans left behind so full a record of what they thought and did that scholars cannot resist the temptation to make the most of it. Edmund Morgan behindthoughtlefttemptation Apart from the intrinsic interest of the complex system of beliefs the Puritans carried with them, their lives give a clue to what it meant at the beginning to be American. And the level of scholarship dealing with them has reached a point where it can address the human condition itself. Edmund Morgan complexamericanhumanbeginning It is hard for anyone who discovers George Washington not to write about him, perhaps because he is so hard to discover and such a surprise when you do. Edmund Morgan whoyouhardsurprise Washington presided at the Constitutional Convention of 1787 and is often credited with its success. But he had no known part in drafting its provisions. Edmund Morgan washingtonhepartsuccess Throughout his long career, Washington earned the adulation not merely of ordinary people but of the other luminaries whom we now hail as 'founding fathers.' Edmund Morgan careernowlongpeople There is something about guns that inhibits understanding. It is not just that they can put an end to argument. They somehow generate beliefs that are obviously contrary to observable fact. Edmund Morgan endsomethingargumentunderstanding
