Two Themes: History is Argument: Arthur Miller v. McCarthyism The City on the Hill vs. American Individualistic Pragmatism

History: Understanding the Past Judging the Present Influencing the Future Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency? -- Jack Welch

City on the Hill Theocratic Communitarian Utopia Declension 1) Those darn kids 2) Growth of commerce 3) Breakdown of town system/social control 4) Frontier Individualism 5) Patriarchal breakdown 6) Halfway Covenant

Salem Witch Trials 1) Attempt to recapture purity of purpose 2) Attempt to roll back declension 3) Town v. country 4) Town v. city 5) Parochial v. secular Backfires! Loss of faith in religious leaders Accelerates secularism, commercialism Miller: Analogy NOT history Historian’s impossible goal? Miller’s interpretation: Hysteria v. Rationalism