William Graham Sumner, a sociology professor at Yale University from 1872 – 1909 wrote,
“All history is only one long story to this effect: Men have struggled for power over their fellow men in order that they might win the joys of earth at the expense of others, and might shift the burdens of life from their own shoulders upon those of others.”
What a cynical way to look at history. Kind of makes you wonder what’s the point? After all, Mr. Sumner was a Yale professor, so he must be pretty smart. He spent his life studying sociology, being a leading expert in the field and I suppose he knew what he was talking about. NOT!
Now, I am not going to get into an intellectual argument about Sumner’s statement. I will just simply state that I think he is dead wrong. We do need to remember he was writing this at a time when the world had recently seen an end to slavery, many wars had been fought for power and workers were being exploited in the emerging industrial age. So those events may have influenced his perspective. But, what about all the examples of human compassion that where evident in the 19th century? Was not the Underground Railroad the antithesis of slavery’s power wielding? Did not the emergence of so many selfless efforts by religious organizations to help the poor prove the opposite of his theory? And, the development of a sense of individual worth and value blossomed during his lifetime.
But, there is a more important reason that I believe Professor Sumner was badly mistaken. Like so many, he thought history was composed of the events and happenings of those who held power. That it is merely the actions of a select few. Think about it. If history is the sum total of all that human beings do, the everyday actions of people all over the world far outweigh the actions of those few. Sumner forgets that things like births, marriages, picnics, ball games, building a deck, mowing the lawn, going on vacation, reading a book, phoning a friend, sharing a pizza, knitting a sweater and all the thousands of things we all do every day are also a part of the story. He, like so many who have built an illusion that history is something finite and definable, forgot that history is not one long story. History is a continuum of millions of stories that have been going on since the beginning. Each building on the previous and contributing to the stories to come.
Sumner was an Episcopal minister until 1872 when he left the church to become a professor and study subjects scientifically. He left behind his faith because he thought it conflicted with science. Without getting in to that topic, I’ll just say that Sumner might have actually contributed to the betterment of humanity more effectively if he had remained a minister, rather than becoming yet another in a long line of analytical historians perpetuating a myth about who we are. Yes, we are impacted by the actions of those in power, but we are not defined by it. We are defined by how we live our lives and treat each other. And I firmly believe more people than given credit live lives that empower and try to ease the burdens of others.
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