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Written history is literary artifact: taking this as its starting point, Discourse and Culture argues that the Foucauldian concept of the shifting scale of linguistic and historic values must be the central focus for a new interpretation of American culture and ideology. Six major American historical figures are evaluated as products of the conflict between subordinate and dominant influences in American society: steelmaster Andrew Carnegie; labour leader Terence V. Powderly; historian of the West Frederick J. Turner; social reconstructionist Jane Addams; race leader Booker T. Wash

How do historians approach objectivity? Mark Bevir addresses this in The Logic of the History of Ideas (1999) via his argument for an anthropological epistemology with objectivity in the historical narrative resting on the explanation of human actions/agent intentionality equating with meaning. The criticism of this position is at several levels. As sophisticated constructionists, historians do not usually ask "Can history be objective?" Rather, they work from the balance of evidence reflecting the intersubjectivity of truth & they acknowledge the problematic nature of inferring agent intentionality & the difficulties in equating this with "what it means." Why Abraham Lincoln issued the 1863 emancipation proclamation is a case in point. No historian would claim to have located its true meaning objectively, in effect doubting Mark Bevir's claim that "objective knowledge arises from a human practice in which we criticise & compare rival webs of theories in terms of agreed facts." The article offers four reasons for rejecting Bevir's position & concludes with a defense of the narrative linguistic determination of meaning. This suggests that history is subject to the same narrative & imaginative constraints as other forms of realist writing, rather than being privileged by an access to knowable intentionality & that this constitutes objective historical knowledge. 5 References. Adapted from the source document.