A Weberian medievalist: Hayden White in the 1950s

摘要

This article is the first in-depth examination of Hayden White's earliest writings. Ignored by most scholars of White's thought, these medievalist studies, dating from the mid-1950s to the early 1960s, offer a fascinating insight into the young White's approach to history. Much unlike his later, better-known writings, White's doctoral dissertation, on the papal schism of 1130, expresses the belief that history should model itself after the social sciences. In particular, the thesis reflects a close affinity with Weberian-style sociology, not only in the use of models and ideal types derived from Max Weber, but also in its conceptions of ideology and 'means-ends rationality'. Besides, traces of Weber's conviction that modern individuals have 'to live in a godless and prophetless time' can be recognized in White's critical treatment of charismatic religious leadership. This does not imply that White, talented in absorbing influences from different directions, unreservedly adhered to Weberian methods. An increasingly critical stance toward what he considered Weber's 'science of society' is evident from White's engagement with the work of Carlo Antoni. Still, one might argue that White's agenda in what the author calls his 'medievalist period' was to a large extent shaped by Weberian themes and attitudes. Finally, the author suggests that White's focus on ideology as well as his covering-law type of evolutionary model can be seen as anticipations of the metahistorical readings and tropological sequence that White would offer in his chef-d'oeuvre, Metahistory (1973).