Preface to the Electronic Edition
On behalf of the Directors and Board of Editors of the Journal of
the History of Ideas, we are pleased to make available, through
digitization, a valuable reference work produced in an earlier generation
by a remarkably talented group of scholars. Authors who contributed
articles to the Dictionary of the History of Ideas include Isaiah
Berlin, George Boas, Herbert Butterfield, Merle Curti, Mircea Eliade,
Joan Kelly Gadol, Sidney Hook, Milton Konvitz, Leonard Kreiger, Judith
Shklar, Peter N. Stearns, and René Wellek. The editor of the
Dictionary was Philip P. Wiener, who was also for many years editor
of the Journal of the History of Ideas. Current JHI Editors and Contributing
Editors who wrote for the DHI include Robert M. Kingdon, Helen North,
Jerrold E. Seigel, and John W. Yolton.
Published in its original edition in 1973-74 and last reprinted in 1977-1980,
the Dictionary of the History of Ideas was a culminating work
in a tradition that had been energized by the fight against fascism.
It was a tradition committed to the pursuit of disinterested scholarship
in the academic sphere and to free expression of thought in the political
sphere (as in Arnaldo Momigliano's article "Freedom of Speech in
Antiquity"). Among reviewers, F. E. L. Priestley called the Dictionary
"monumental," noting the "impressive list of 254 contributors,
drawn from a world-wide range of institutions," and Roy Porter
remarked on its "conceptual richness," "authoritativeness,"
and "originality." Peter Gay, anticipating another, different
style of research, perceptively suggested that "the cultural history
of the future toward which our profession is now aiming will have to
embrace both thinker and demagogue, poet and peasant, the writer and
the reader of newspaper articles."
The articles contained in this Dictionary return us to time
when it was still possible to speak with a confident authoritativeness
about central ideas in the Western tradition (non-Western traditions
make only a marginal appearance in this work, although there are entries
on "China in Western Thought and Culture" and "Islamic
Conceptions of Intellectual Life"). As we move into a new century,
there are still things to be learned from our scholarly authors about
such subjects as "Allegory," "Authority," "
"Democracy," "Humanism in Italy," "Love,"
"Protest Movements," "Relativity," "Religious
Toleration," "Romanticism" (in various permutations),
"Social Attitudes toward Women," and "War and Militarism."
The ideal reader of the Dictionary of the History of Ideas is
whoever finds sustenance in the clear exposition of influential ideas.
The DHI recounts the historical development of such ideas across
a range of disciplines, including philosophy, religion, politics, literature,
and the biological, physical, and social sciences. We imagine a student
sitting at a computer or reading a printout far from the academic capitals
where most of these articles were written. We salute you for your curiosity.
We recommend this Dictionary as a starting point. We invite you
to interact with and to contribute to the panorama of ideas.
Many people have helped in making possible the electronic edition of
the DHI. Aside from the people who typed and retyped the entire
text, and those who fine-tuned the resulting product, we want particularly
to note the efforts of: Jim Draper, Director of Business Development,
The Gale Group (http://www.galegroup.com); David Seaman, former Director of the Electronic Text
Center; Matthew Gibson, Associate Director of the Electronic Text Center; and Jayme Schwartzberg for the design of the site.
Maryanne Cline Horowitz, Occidental College and UCLA
Donald R. Kelley, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
Allan Megill, University of Virginia
Publications Committee, Journal of the History of Ideas
January 2003
