Leopold von Ranke - The Secret of World History

Leopold von Ranke believed that history was related to politics in the sense that history identified the problems and their causes while, politics, invented in the 19th century according to Ranke, provided the solutions.[footnoteRef:2] In order for political solutions to be effectively developed and applied, history had to be understood critically.[footnoteRef:3] The best way to understand history critically was to examine the primary documents of history as opposed to the interpretations of these documents by historians of the present. Engaging with the actual texts of the past could allow one to see directly what the past had been about. To ensure a proper study of history, though, the student requires a stable state—i.e., a healthy government that allows such perusal.[footnoteRef:4] [2: Leopold von Ranke, Excerpts from “The Secret of World History. Selected Writings on the Art and Science of History” by Leopold von Ranke. Edited by Roger Wines (Fordham University Press, 1981), 108.] [3: Leopold von Ranke, Excerpts from “The Secret of World History. Selected Writings on the Art and Science of History” by Leopold von Ranke. Edited by Roger Wines (Fordham University Press, 1981), 109.] [4: Leopold von Ranke, Excerpts from “The Secret of World History. Selected Writings on the Art and Science of History” by Leopold von Ranke. Edited by Roger Wines (Fordham University Press, 1981), 115.]

Von Ranke’s reading of history revealed to him that “progress consists in this: in every period a certain movement of the human spirit is revealed, by which for the first time one or another tendency becomes pre-eminent and maintains itself in its own way.”[footnoteRef:5] Each epoch has its own right to be examined, and all should be considered equal to one another, even though some may appear to progress more than others. Von Ranke argues that all are progressing in accordance with the spirit of the age and in accordance with their nature. One should see them all as God sees history—all laid out before one, everything present at once, without judgment or preference for one over the other.[footnoteRef:6] Rather, they are all to be regarded equally by the historian just as God regards all time equally: “In all of history God dwells, lives, is to be found.”[footnoteRef:7] This thought should always be present in the mind of the historian, von Ranke argues. [5: Leopold von Ranke, Excerpts from “The Secret of World History. Selected Writings on the...…Leopold von Ranke, Excerpts from “The Secret of World History. Selected Writings on the Art and Science of History” by Leopold von Ranke. Edited by Roger Wines (Fordham University Press, 1981), 265.] [11: Leopold von Ranke, Excerpts from “The Secret of World History. Selected Writings on the Art and Science of History” by Leopold von Ranke. Edited by Roger Wines (Fordham University Press, 1981), 265.] [12: Leopold von Ranke, Excerpts from “The Secret of World History. Selected Writings on the Art and Science of History” by Leopold von Ranke. Edited by Roger Wines (Fordham University Press, 1981), 265.]

In short, von Ranke sees himself as an important personage in Prussia, for he is a kind of gatekeeper of history: he has the gift to study it and discern the spirit of the epochs that have come before. In his discernment, he can write and talk about what he uncovers and thus pass the lessons of history on to others that they might benefit from them in their humanity. That is the entire point of history, and the relationship between history and the political stems from this: whatever mistakes were made in history can be addressed and solved by the application of the political.

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