Originally posted by SmokedSalmon
Hey stuwy85,
Let me stress that not ALL revisionists are extremely negative about Kennedy. As a matter of fact most present a balanced analytical view towards Kennedy i.e. Reeves. I think the negative historians would actually be Seymour Hersh - 'Dark Side of Camelot'.
Anyway, I do believe you are correct about the "rise of revisionism...questioning established historical beliefs" for the changing views of Kennedy. We must realise that we are also living in two different eras. Do you think any historian would be taken seriously of scorning Kennedy's presidency during the 60s? Heck no... Kennedy was this fantastic figure as was shown through the newspapers, televisions, and historians of the time. His presidency was considered the 'golden age'. lol like anyone was going to demean him... no one would buy his/her book!
Of course today, the revisionist historians do not have this problem and can perform any attack they want on this historical figure. And be recognised for it, not brushed aside. As well as having more amounts of resources from the Whitehouse (confidential files no longer confidential). From this evidence and resources the historians can now discover the 'man behind the myth'. Well that is the info. I have on the revisionists.
I hope that answers the question.. meh I'll give the advice line a buzz.
stuwy... on top of what salmon said consider the events of the 60s that caused social change in everyone: (hopefully you did vietnam to understand this!!!)
-decline in cold war tension.............all these lead to sceptism of
-watergate scandal.........................the public towards political
-pentagon papers ..........................leaders
-vietnam war itself!! questioning of political motives
-research had taken place due to the space of time especially look at this if addressig reeves(salmon basicaly covered that although...)
also.. i have a feeling that your focusing a lot on set "schools" of thought. 'revisionist' is a category that classifies a whole heap of historians (even hersh who writes in the late 90's.) so keep in mind that the focus should be on the individual histotian and their specific influences on writing history..... so even the fact that someone is religious or not may effect the purpose of their history on kennedy (direct example of reeves again) or that hersh is a journalist.. etc.
so the short of the long story.... individual influences combined with societal influences shape the perspective of each historian wehn doing kennedy.. which can be summed up as the personal purpose and the audience the historian is catering for..
hope that helps a little.