Narratives of Democracy and Despotism: Richard Hildreth and the Politics of American History

This article argues that the muted and often negative responses to the American historian Richard Hildreth’s six-volume History of the United States published between 1849 and 1852 resulted from his embrace of a secular, utilitarian philosophy of history emphasizing individual freedom as the main source of human happiness and social progress. Tracing the origins of these ideas to Hildreth’s early exposure to liberal religion, democratic party politics, and antislavery thought, the article shows that Hildreth’s historiographical approach rejected providentialism in favor of secular causation, rooted in human agency and historical contingency. Hildreth’s liberal utilitarianism is offered as at least a partial solution to what has been called the “problem” of defining his place in American intellectual history.