History, On Proper Principles: Essays in Honor of Forrest McDonald

“History, on proper principles,” Forrest McDonald said, can help us “abandon our fragmented, problem,-solving approach to knowledge and take up a holistic view of human affairs.” History, on proper principles, is that study which helps each of us both escape the provincialism of the present and receive the present with an attitude of gratitude and joy. It is with this attitude that McDonald has embraced life and love and learning, and it has been infectious. His legacy will surely be a dual one: his uncompromising method of “doing history” bequeathed to all who have benefited from his tutelage will stand alongside his magnificent oeuvre itself in inspiring future generations of historians.