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American Social History - 1959
Volume 19
... the mind of the people in this country has never wanted to live through the two extremes of war and peace. But only in alternation, that there people were very brutal in wartime indeed, and that they were very sweet and pacifistic in peacetime. But this isn’t the problem. You have to be a warrior in peacetime, and you have to be peaceful in wartime. That is the moral problem of mankind, if you want to comprehend the width of our undertaking as human beings.
March 25, 1959
In American Social History, Rosenstock-Huessy starts by defining history as "the sum of things for which people have laid down their lives," and proceeds to apply this definition to the American experience. Particular attention is paid to the peculiar, and from a European perspective reversed, relationship of both war and peace and church and state in America.
Rosenstock-Huessy describes the first century of America’s history as primarily religious, a history of communities; the second as primarily political, a history of individuals; and the third as primarily economic, a history of the human fragments that make up the masses. (The last lectures cover the history of society’s wards, from the slaves and sailors of early American history to the "forces" required by the industrial organization.)
While concentrating on the American experience as formed by religious communities and marked by violence, the lectures afford Rosenstock-Huessy a framework for general remarks on the relation of faith and religion and of war and peace; the series concludes with remarks on justice and injustice, time, and history as the revelation of the solidarity of the human race. Forty-two 45-minute lectures.
The final audio lecture is unusual. It is a recording of American historian Page Smith discussing Rosenstock-Huessy with this class, prior to exams. This final lecture was not transcribed, and so is available in audio form only.
The Rosenstock-Huessy lectures are available in two versions:
• the original audio recording of Rosenstock-Huessy giving the lecture and
• transcripts of the original audio.
Argo sells these versions in two different packages:
• electronic and
• paper
The electronic package of American Social History - 1959 is sold on a DVD, which contains
•the original recordings of 35 hours of college lectures in mp3 format,
• as well as every transcript of all of the English-language lectures Rosenstock-Huessy recorded, in computer text format. These transcripts are an excellent basis for word searches, to compare what Rosenstock-Huessy had to say on a particular topic or on related topics, either in different contexts across nearly 20 years.
DVDs are produced to order, which can take up to 5 weeks.
| American Social History - 1959 on DVD | ISBN: 978-1-937253-00-4 | $30 |
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| The paper package of the lecture series American Social History - 1959 consists of a printed, bound paper transcript, which should be ordered separately, below. |
| American Social History - 1959 | ISBN: 978-0-912148-38-0 | $40 |
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Alternatively, you can also order directly from Argo Books.