A Preface to History: Analysis and Criticism

Carl Gustavson's classic "A Preface to History" provides a fruitful source through which to examine a normative approach to history, debate the nature of objectivity in historical discussion, investigate historical-mindedness as a practical tool and analyze the basic forces that drive history. This paper presents shortcomings in Gustavson's approach to history and suggests that history may be a political tool rather than a detached scientific presentation of new knowledge in each of its revisions.