Email this article James Shotwell and National Board for Historical Service (1917–1918)
- Authors: Romanov V.V.1
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Affiliations:
- Derzhavin Tambov State University
- Issue: Vol 26, No 195 (2021)
- Pages: 353-360
- Section: Articles
- URL: https://ogarev-online.ru/1810-0201/article/view/298536
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.20310/1810-0201-2021-26-195-353-360
- ID: 298536
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Abstract
The role of the American historian James Shotwell in the organization and activity of the National Board for Historical Service is examined. The Board was part of the United States emergency agencies, created in order to ensure the country's participation in the World War I. Its founders were “New Historians” who viewed history as a science that should explain modern socio-economic processes. In the context of the global conflict, the Board under the leadership of Shotwell was engaged in collecting materials about the war and composing expert opinions on current political problems and issues of teaching history. On the basis of publications prepared under the direction of the Board in 1917–1918, we assess the academic and propaganda components of the Board’s activities. It is concluded that the political bias of historians in a number of cases became the reason for their loss of historical objectivity. An examination of the “Sisson documents” conducted by the Board staff is considered as an example of this trend.
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