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I found Ralph Waldo Emerson's famous words, “there is properly no history, only biography,” in his “Essay I” being quoted in the article titled “Keeping the dream alive: A biography,” appearing in June 21, 2012 Time magazine. The article deals with the collapse of American Dream, and “there is properly no history ...” comes in the following sentence:

“There is the crisis of our time. The American Dream may be slipping away. We have overcome such challenges before. To recover the Dream requires knowing where it came from, how it lasted so long and why it matters so much.

Emerson once remarked that there is properly no history, only biography. This is the biography of an idea, one that made America great. Whether that idea has much of a future is the question facing Americans now.”

The author, Jon Meacham seems to relate the word, “the biography of an idea” to American Dream, but I don’t get a clear idea about the phrase, “there is properly no history, only biography” meant by Emerson.

What does it mean in specific connection with “American Dream”?

By the way, what is the function of “properly” used as an adverb here? Does it mean “in proper (exact) sense, there is no (abstract string of) history, but for (individual) biography (of heroes or historic characters)?

ratchet freak
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Yoichi Oishi
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  • Emerson introduces his ideas through words and phrases, and if you don't know what these mean, there's little chance that they will make sense of the text: higher-order thinking in reading depends heavily on knowledge of grammar and word meanings. Hence I suggest you to see a dictionary. –  Oct 05 '12 at 06:41
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    @Carlo_R. I’ve been learning English language for more than a half century, precisely 66 years since junior high. I don’t think the composition of the sentence “There is properly no history, only biography.” requires special and high level of knowledge about grammar and the meanings of “history” and “biology” simply available from dictionaries. I don’t think any of Oxford, Cambridge, and American Heritage Dictionary would give a workable answer to my question, which has nothing to do with a trove of dry definitions of word, “history” and “biology,” nor grammatical composition of it. – Yoichi Oishi Oct 05 '12 at 09:18
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    Continued: It’s an insightful interpretation and effective explanation of the meaning and thought behind “There is properly no history, only biography” that I expect to obtain from my colleagues, not from commonplace dictionaries and grammar books. – Yoichi Oishi Oct 05 '12 at 09:19

2 Answers2

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I would interpret this as saying that, as you suggest, "properly" is used to mean in the strict sense of the word. He is alluding to the fact that true history is a complete and unbiased account of the actual events that took place during some period in the past, but it is impossible for anyone to accomplish this because anyone attempting it will knowingly or unknowingly, by omission, inclusion, or interpretation, introduce their own biases and thus their account will be more a biographical account than an historical one.

Jim
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    That's one way of looking at it, but I suspect Emerson meant something a bit more subtle and "poetic" than just a rephrasing of history is written by the winners (who are inevitably biased). I think it's more that history is a meaningless sequence of "historical accidents", and that only the [biographical] details of real people's lives actually have any "meaning" in the grand scheme of things. He was a champion of individualism, after all, not a historian worried about accuracy of reporting. – FumbleFingers Oct 05 '12 at 04:45
  • You make a good point. – Jim Oct 05 '12 at 04:56
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    Not for the first time, I suspect Yoichi is trying to lure us into philosophical/literary discussion (with the figleaf of asking whether “properly” is used as an adverb! :) But, Hey! They're always interesting questions, even if they skirt the margins of ELU topicality. – FumbleFingers Oct 05 '12 at 05:06
  • @FumbleFingers. Thanks for your usual, valuable answers and comments. All my interest at present is if I can register 11111 lucky number rep (no thanks for other numbers – 111+other than 1) with next few questions with, or under a ‘fig leaf’. – Yoichi Oishi Oct 05 '12 at 22:03
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    @Yoichi Oishi: I always find your questions interesting, even though I sometimes vote to close them as Off Topic or whatever! Anyway, knowing how much store you Japanese set by lucky numbers, I'll do my best to help you get to that target. I didn't actually upvote this question because a.) the history/biography issue is "discussion", and b.) you seem to already understand the meaning of Emerson's "properly". But I'm going to upvote it now because properly here is an unusual, almost "poetic" usage, which could easily merit further investigation. – FumbleFingers Oct 05 '12 at 22:25
  • @Fumble Fingers. Thanks for a precious donation. I noticed the number of up-votes to this question rose from 8 to 9, and found the one-up came from you, and I know you casted close sometimes. I appreciate your usual attention to my posts. I really mean it. I was uneasy with the usage of “properly” here; even it is an infallible Emerson’s writing. That said, the big difference between native speakers and non-native speakers like me is that native speakers can read the implication of phrases and the meaning between lines far more easily than I do. On the other hand, – Yoichi Oishi Oct 06 '12 at 00:49
  • Continued: we can easily understand idiosyncratic Japanese notion, “wabi – beauty of sparseness and simplicity,”“sabi – compound of elegance, quietness, and simplicity” and “monono-aware – understanding of and compassion with existence of things” that are difficult for foreigners to understand, without any explanation, as well as grasping delicate meaning between lines of Japanese literature instinctively. Though it may sound excusatory, I think my tendency of submitting off-topic-looking issues and “skirting” ELU topicality may come from the handicaps I have with you all native speakers. – Yoichi Oishi Oct 06 '12 at 00:50
  • @FumbleFinger. I made it. I literaly marked 11111 - five 1 in series! now. It's much luckier than getting 11150. The next goal is 12345. Again, sorry for being OFF-TOPIC. – Yoichi Oishi Oct 06 '12 at 01:12
  • @YoichiOishi- I got you to 11109 but you must have done the accept to get the final 2 :-) – Jim Oct 06 '12 at 01:13
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    Jim. Look at the rep number on may page. It's 11111! – Yoichi Oishi Oct 06 '12 at 01:22
  • @YoichiOishi- Very nice! Congrats. – Jim Oct 06 '12 at 01:25
  • @Jim. Thanks. I didn't know it was you who got me up to 11109, barely 2 short of 11111, the lucky number only achievable with a single 'accept' point, not with an up-vote. Thanks a lot. – Yoichi Oishi Oct 06 '12 at 02:01
  • @Yoichi Oishi: Bingo! If you'd happened to end up with 11112 points, you'd have had to go and find someone's answer to downvote so you'd lose a point and hit the target! (I'd have offered one of mine - I'm sure there are plenty that deserve it :) – FumbleFingers Oct 06 '12 at 02:26
  • @FunbleFingers. 11111 is a lucky number for me. I was born on January 1st – the first day of the first month. In oriental notion, 1 is the number from which everything starts with and grows up as against the number 10 with which everything withers up and terminates. However, Time magazine (Oct 25) listed up 123456 as the top 2nd and 111111 as the top 9th of top 25 worst online passwords in 2012. – Yoichi Oishi Oct 29 '12 at 00:36
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Emerson was echoing the Great Man Theory of history espoused by his contemporary, Scottish historian Thomas Carlyle, who said:

“The history of the world is but the biography of great men.”

The American Dream is the national ethos of the United States. To quote Wikipedia:

The idea of the American Dream is rooted in the United States Declaration of Independence which proclaims that "all men are created equal" and that they are "endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights" including "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

Meacham is arguing that the American Dream isn't simply an abstract ideal, but is a grand idea that has had a life of its own; and its biography is the history of the United States.

Gnawme
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