Abstract

This paper offers a contextual and philosophical analysis of Woodbridge's 1916 _The Purpose of History_. It is maintained that Woodbridge's treatise can be fruitfully situated in a series of early twentieth century American historiographical debates. More specifically, Woodbridge's take on the writing of history is allied with the views of prominent 'New Historians', namely Frederick Jackson Turner, Carl Becker, Charles Beard, and James Harvey Robinson. Like his historian peers, Woodbridge emphasised the selectivity (or relativity) of historical practice, whilst simultaneously affirming history's 'scientific' status and social utility. If Woodbridge innovated, then it was due to his careful examination of the truth-aptness of historical claims and his detailed articulation and systematic defence of a properly pluralistic historiography.