IF MEN WERE ANGELS:

A fair historical account needs to do more than catalogue sins. Ideals are real, and sometimes effective; interests are real, and sometimes determinative. Reading the past, writing history, we must be idealistic materialists or material idealists. What do these seemingly contradictory phrases mean? We should avoid a purely "patriotic" history, a story of American nobility and nothing else. In truth, we shouldn't be too entranced with nobility. It isn't always a bad thing to act from material or personal interests: Think of workers on strike fighting for higher wages and better working conditions. High ideals alone often produce arrogance and cruelty: Think of Lenin's socialism.

We should also beware the excesses of "ideology critique." Economic self-interest doesn't explain everything that happens in the world. Nor is everything that happens irredeemable. We can't resolve the contradictions of the past, but we can choose sides; we can oppose the racism of our own time and support contemporary versions of The Democratic Review's campaigns for immigrants and workers. We can acknowledge the sins of the Founders and still agree that we are bound to recognize and redeem the promise of the "new order."

Perhaps most importantly, we should guard against hubris. Acting on our own, in our own time, we will certainly try to avoid the immorality and injustice of the past. We will do the best we can to recognize all the implications of our values. We promise, when we defend equality, that we won't leave anyone out. But we had better add humility to our righteousness; we are unlikely to avoid the contradictions of political life. 

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