神意与人民大众的力量:乔治·班克罗夫特的双重历史观评析——兼论19世纪中期美国的社会思潮

God and the Power of the People: Analysis on the Duality of George Bancroft's Historical Concept:On the Social Thoughts of mid-19^(th) Century America

乔治·班克罗夫特在美国历史和史学史上均占有重要地位,国内外史学界对其历史观的评析则众说纷纭。本文在对其著作和文集解读的基础上,结合影响当时美国社会的时代思潮,归纳出班氏历史观的双重性和二元特点,并分析了产生这种历史观的社会根源。班克罗夫特以人具有"直觉理性"为前提,阐发了美国历史是由人民大众的力量推动不断前进的过程这一观点。同时,班氏运用启蒙运动中的自然神论和浪漫主义的道德法则为美国革命提供了终极解释。浪漫主义强调人生来具有源于直觉的正确行动力,从而为人人平等提供了先验的根源,这一观念在19世纪中期美国的各种社会运动中皆有不同程度的体现。通过分析班氏历史观的社会根源,透视出19世纪中期美国社会复杂而活跃的图景。

George Bancroft has played an important role in American history and in the field of historiogra- phy, but there appeared so many different viewpoints on his historical concept in the academic circles home and abroad. Beginning with the analysis of Bancroft＇s works and miscellanies, with the explanation of the intel- lectual currents which influenced America in Bancroft＇s era, this article concludes that Bancroft developed a dual historical concept. Bancroft explored that everyone was born with the intuitional reason which made them think and act correctly. Thus, American history was the process promoted by the power of the American peo- ple. He also used the concept of Nature＇s God from Enlightenment and the moral laws from Romanticism as the ultimate evidence of the ideological origin of American Revolution. Moreover, the concept from Romanticism brought a transcendental source for the idea that every human being was born to be equal, and the above con- cept had made a significant influence on the social movements in mid - 19th century America. From this study we can see the complicated and vivid scene in the mid - 19th century America. The fusion of these two currents gave the intellectual impetus to the fast develooment of America in the next half of nineteenth century.