numbers began to rise further, and they have been rising everrnsince. At Yale and Brown and Princeton and Williams, historyrnhas become the most popular undergraduate major, replacingrneconomics and politics. The Digest of Education Statisticsrnshows that the number of history degrees has been increasingrnthroughout the nation for more than a decade.rnPart of the cause is a new approach to learning that studentsrnhave worked out for themselves. It takes the form of multiplernmajoring. A few students did that years ago. Now many are doingrnit. hi growing numbers, they tend to elect two majors, orrnvarious major-minor combinations. One major is usually vocational.rnAnother is apt to be in the arts and sciences. History isrnone of those choices, and it is gaining popularity today.rnAnother indicator of change is to be found in the work thatrncollege faculties are doing. We have been seeing a very rapidrngrowth of historical scholarship outside history departments.rnThe ymerican Political Science Association is divided into, Irnthink, six fields. One of them, called politics and histor’, isrnnow the second largest, and growing at a great rate. Somethingrnsimilar has happened in economics, where two econometricrnhistorians recently w’on the Nobel Prize. In the social sciencesrnmuch scholarship is now historical—a major shift from only arnfew decades ago. In philosophy one of the most flourishingrnfields is the history of ideas. In my own university half the facultyrnin humanities and arts departments are historians. Most ofrnour programs in area studies are run by historians. In short, historyrnis being written and taught in many academic departmentsrnor programs. Increasingly the work that is being done inrnmanv other disciplines is very similar—even indistinguishablern—to what is done within history departments.rnOther signs of growing interest in history come from the nationrnat large. Attendance is up at historical sites. At MinutemanrnNational Ilistoric Park in Concord, isitors were up 25 percentrnlast year. In Boston, some $20 million will be spentrnrefurbishing the Freedom Trail. Attendance at most of its historicrnsites is up too, after a long period of stagnation and decline.rnNew York’s Ellis Island has been a great success, and isrnthronged with visitors.rnAnother sign of change is the return of serious works of historicalrnscholarship to the best-seller lists, after a long absence. Irnthink of David Donald’s biography of Abraham Lincoln, JamesrnMcPhcrson on the Civil War, and Stephen Ambrose’s book onrnLewis and Clark, all excellent v.’orks of historical scholarship,rnsolidly grounded in primary research.rnYet another sign is that Hollywood is taking an interest. Wernare seeing a growing number of historical films, and betterrnfilms. Some have not been successful: Hester Prynnc with arnhot tub and a happy ending. Others ha’e succeeded wonderfullyrnv’ell as history and drama. Alan Bennett’s and NicholasrnHytner’s Madness of King George and Bruce Beresford’s BlackrnRobe were tv’o outstanding examples of many recent films thatrnhave interpreted historical issues with higli sensitivity and growingrnsuccess.rnMore signs appear in teleision; the continuing strength ofrnthe American Experience series on PBS, and the success ofrnKen Burns’ superb series on the Civil War. The new HistoryrnChannel has surprised the executives of cable companies, andrndisrupted their projections by the breadth of its appeal.rnArtists in many fields are increasingly finding inspiration inrnhistorical approaches. I think of postmodern architects whornhave turned away from the international style, and toward historicalrnmaterials in the postmodernist movement. In music.rnAmerican composers are moving on parallel lines. Examplesrnare the operas of John Adams (Nixon in China, The Death ofrnKHnghoffer); the quartets of Steve Reich, which are scored forrnhistorical materials (Different Trains); and the orchestral compositionsrnof William Bolcom, Arnold Rosner, and John Harbison.rnThese tendencies reverse the trends that were very strong inrnthe 1950’s, 60’s, 70’s, and even 80’s. Only a few years ago, wernwere getting books called The End of History, The Death of History,rnThe Edge of History. Now many disciplines are moving inrna different direction.rnSomething’s happening here; a turning of the cultural tide,rna movement broadly based, largely unreported, and yet veryrnstrong and sustained. Part of it may be caused by historicalrnevents in the past decade, and especially the sudden collapse ofrnone of the wodd’s superpowers, and the revolution in EasternrnEurope. Other events of e’ery passing day are reminders thatrnhistory is happening to us. Another (and related) cause may bernthe collapse of intellectual systems that were nonhistorical orrneven antihistorieal. I think of the international stvle in architecture,rnand the decline of various atemporal schools ofrnthought in social science. And a third factor may be a changernin the wa}’ that history is being written. We’ve been throughrnthe old political history and the new social history, which is nowrn30 }’ears old. New opportunities are now emerging from therncreative union of these two schools. The best history writingrntoday keeps the breadth and comprehension of social historyrnand combines it with the rigor and control and sharpness ofrnedge in the old political history. With that, historians are recoveringrnconfidence, and writing and speaking with a clearerrnvoice.rnThey are also writing on different themes. One theme ofrnhigh importance in Albion’s Seed, is about continuity in history.rnIn the 1960’s and 70’s, most great problems in history werernchange-problems. Many centered on an idea of discontinuityrnin history, which encouraged a sense of distance between thernpresent and the past. Social historians liked to speak of the pastrnas another country—a foreign country. In the process, they encouragedrna sense of its remoteness, and even its irrelevance tornthose who live in the present. The ney’ approaches are betterrnbalanced in this respect.rnOther new themes rise from a recovery of a sense of contingencyrnin histor’. Many of us are writing about contingency today.rnWe do it in different ways. James MePherson’s books onrnthe Civil War center on contingencies in the sense of turningrnpoints. Stephen Jay Gould constructs his book on the BurgessrnShale Fossils around an idea of contingency in the sense of accidentsrnthat turned the course of evolution. My book Paul Revere’srnRide is about contingency in the sense of people makingrnchoices, and choices making a difference. Only a few years ago,rnsocial history was mostly about large determinant processesrnthat denied the possibility of choice. In the history that’s beingrndone toda, contingencies are set within those large processes.rnIt is a more accurate understanding of the way m which historyrnactually happened. It also creates better stories and brighterrnprospects for storytelling in general.rnI listory, in sum, is flourishing today. For all of this, we owe arndebt to The Ingersoll Foundation, which by its existence and itsrnacts has kept ali’e an idea that the past lives in us today, thatrnothers have walked this earth before us. You helped to nourishrnthese beliefs in a time when they most needed support. For allrnof that and for this award, thank c)u. ^e •rnMARCH 1997/17rnrnrn