T wo misconceptions have marked the image of Ranke held by
American historians, since history in the 1880's became an academic
discipline on purportedly Rankean principles. Ranke has been
viewed as the prototype of the nontheoretical and, for many, the
politically neutral historian. When his conservative prejudices have
been recognized, he has nevertheless been given credit for the fact
that these prejudices were not reflected in his historical narrative. ¹

Graduate study in history developed in American universities at
a time when philosophic naturalism and positivism dominated the
intellectual scene. In their endeavor to give academic respectability
to historical study, a few writers who had been influenced by Comte
and Buckle, e.g., Andrew D. White, John Fiske, Henry and Brooks
Adams, identified scientific history with the application to the histori-
cal process of general laws similar to those of the natural sciences. A
far greater number of writers were conscious of the distinctions be-
tween historical narration which deals with unique situations and
discourse in the natural sciences which aims at general and typical
truths. Accordingly, they sought to explain the scientific character of
historical writing and its method of establishing facts objectively, free
from philosophical considerations. For this new school of historians
Ranke was the "father of scientific history" ² who, as H. B. Adams at
Johns Hopkins University observed at the time, "determined to hold

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