The Limits of Historical Inquiry?
For the past four months (from May to August of 2017) - and thanks to the generous support of both both the History Department at the University of Colorado at Boulder and the Post-Holocaust American Judaism Collections in the University's archives - I have perused his personal papers, read his published works, and considered the legacy he left behind. But, words from his book This is Real and You are Completely Unprepared haunt me. As I said in the introduction, Lew derided history for its tendency to reduce people and lives to arguments and its inability to capture what he called a “realm beyond language.” [1] As a graduate student in the University of Colorado-Boulder's History Department, I found these words particularly unpleasant and unpalatable. But, as I have put together this exhibit, I am no longer certain that Lew was wrong, nor do I still feel this way.
Lew, I came to realize, had not abandoned language's importance. He was a journalist, poet, and author. He understood the power of words - and, perhaps, their limitations, in ways I have yet to. Rather, I believe that it was his familiarity with language that lead him to caution and remind other's of its inadequacy. Throughout the 1970s, as he struggled to make sense of his life first with Buddhism and then with Judaism, he seems to have experienced moment after moment in which life was mystical and inexplicable. As I read his reminder that there exists a portion of the human experience that defies description, I see his inability to express some of the most profound moments of his life. Upon reflection, I think that most people might agree with Lew's stance. There are times when words fail to describe the fullness of our lives.
So, what does that mean for those of us who write history? Not as much as I once thought it might, I now believe. History, as we've talked about is always, at least in part, an act of filling in the gaps and making sense of the facts we know about the past. It, by its very nature, requires a level of humility. Historians - whether academic or the public - can never fully know the past. My time with Alan Lew has simply reminded me that what we do not know, and may not be able to write about, could be more than I had ever considered before.
- Jason Hogstad
September 18, 2017