方纳:一个伟大美国学术时代的写照——为《19世纪美国的政治遗产》而作

Eric Foner: A Portrayal of a Great American Academic Era

本文以美国历史学家埃里克·方纳的里程碑学术创作为基点,结合"新美国史学"的演进,对方纳半个多世纪的学术生涯进行深度梳理和分析,注重讨论方纳的学术创作与他所处的时代背景(同时包括美国社会与美国历史学界)之间的互动关系,展现在20世纪60年代变革时代中成长起来的一代历史学家如何借鉴多重史学传统,来发掘"可用的过去",创造"新美国史学",重新解读美国历史,为一个多元化的美国建构一种新的集体性民族记忆。

Based on the study of the landmark works written by American historian Eric Foner,this essay offers an in-depth and analytic review of Foner’s scholarly career of more than half a century.It places his work within the context of the evolution of a"New American History,"focusing on the interactions between his academic creativity and the background of the time in which his scholarship has been produced,including both the changing American society and the historical profession in the United States.The essay intends to demonstrate how the generation of American historians who were intellectually baptized by the social politics in the 1960s,as represented by Foner,have made effective use of diverse historiographic traditions to rediscover"the usable past,"craft the scholarship of"New American History,"reinterpret the nation’s past,and reconstruct a new collective national memory for a multicultural United States.