Storytelling

William Cronon served as President of the American Historical Association in 2012. He earned his baccalaureate from the University of Wisconsin–Madison with a double major in history and English in 1976, and holds doctorates in history from Oxford and Yale. He is the author of Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists, and the Ecology of New England (Hill and Wang, 1983) and Nature's Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West (W. W. Norton, 1991). Cronon is currently the Frederick Jackson Turner and Vilas Research Professor of History, Geography, and Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. William Cronon Photo by Hilary Fey Cronon There can be few more daunting assignments in our profession than the one that lies before me. Like every other AHA president, I have struggled with the question of how best to address the membership of the American Historical Association as the culminating act of my presidential duties. Because you are among my most learned colleagues, because no one knows more about our shared discipline than you do, because you represent so many different subfields and specialties and periods and places, and because your ability to criticize whatever I may say is unmatched, the challenge of saying something that you will find interesting and worthy is formidable indeed. AHA presidents have met this challenge in quite different ways. One of the rituals of the presidency is to peruse all the past addresses that have been delivered since Andrew Dickson White first did so (twice!) in 1884 and 1885. As others have noted before me, these addresses tend to cluster into certain recurring genres. AHA presidents have sometimes sought to offer the broadest of philosophical statements about what history is, how it should be done, and what its role in the life of the present should be. A closely related subgenre makes the case for particular emerging subfields that a particular president believes to be vital to the future of the discipline. (Not too surprisingly, the chosen subfield in such cases is almost always the president's own.) Gordon Wright labeled this first genre of presidential addresses the “manifestoes,” and they are easily the most numerous among all the talks that have been delivered on this ritual occasion.1 A second major genre that has been present almost from the outset but that seems to have become increasingly popular in the past three decades consists of what we might call the monographic addresses, in which presidents read tightly focused essays drawn from their own work. These histories-in-miniature arguably do a better job than the manifestoes of honoring the rhetorical maxim “show, don't tell” to exemplify rather than describe best historical practice. Laurel Ulrich's lovely essay exploring the history of a single Mormon quilt from 1857 and Tony Grafton's astonishingly wide-ranging explication last year of an obscure notebook from the colonial frontier of Pennsylvania show what can be accomplished when this genre is executed with real mastery.2 The manifestoes and the monographs account for the lion's share of all AHA presidential addresses. But there are scarcer genres also worth noticing. the of all the addresses in one on historical a the role of history in and a of one are to the of there are a few presidential than I but I is the most of are about the that a particular to this The of this last genre is as which is in its its and its the discipline of history and the AHA should I offer as my own to this I as the first to as president of the AHA of my of William Frederick Jackson and about the past before this subfield into I be to all of you that the of history should to but to all our on this and and say of the and and which we to the which history more than to for you in that of an of I in other to a history as the in the future of our at to the that my in other should its and in their own historical But I have chosen to do this for that will a to my which will to one of the more of these presidential of the and most of all a on and as of our discipline. The American Historical Association to and all particular all places, all all all in all the and their as I about I more that the discipline as a is and than at in the past There are for this that I can at more than most to the of the an to the and that the in and history that the for historical in the and in the decades the has a for these to but more than decades the of the we can of the and for history and other of are in in the and in and to and these are in of and about the of and that call into question about the the of in for about the and of in baccalaureate the of to the role of with and among their most and that have increasingly and about and The on and no few of the the of the second of the have been by these and we the and by the AHA we to such has the of all more than it there is the in AHA this past year the of of in and for a I will to all of the I in about the in which the is about the work. The and on which we have to our are of the and to the of from its that has that and are of the with its from the that have so the AHA by and and job which among the to become these are into question as of their and as and as for and job become more with the role of such as the AHA in this is vital we are to the they have One of my about this has to do with As I in my and it seems to that the on which our discipline has is at as from to is that are that are that and are many monographs the of from my own many of no read for they have almost all of it is a of be it for than a few of my have been the of a the that is on the ability of such to and and a too to and and have become of is more at than many of to be more is at the ability to and on and for many and many of I have to of this as the will from be to read that are among the of but that of to be a as as lies what that for historical monographs that are in many more in the they on from my own will the of the challenge we since I I 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