Title: The Mirror of History: Intellectual Engagement and the Vietnam War at the Massachusetts Historical Society

Author: Craig Schechter

Advisor: Philip Chassler

Secondary Advisor: Judith Smith

Abstract:
This paper seeks to contextualize a specific event that occurred at the Massachusetts Historical Society between 1968 and 1969, during which three historians discussed dissent during the three different American Wars, within the antiwar dissent that took place in their own time. It seeks to expand the rigid notions of who and what made up the anti-Vietnam War movement, and to connect the movement to a rich historical tradition of influential and powerful people using their position to question policy. The main source of primary documents was the archives at the Massachusetts Historical Society itself. While the organization mostly collects historical artifacts from the 18th and 19th century, it houses a rich collection of papers from its members, many of whom were influential in planning the lecture series. The Harvard University archives housed some collections pertaining to the three scholars who delivered lectures, and were useful to help identify the personal involvement, if any, each had with the antiwar movement.

Who might be interested in reading this work?
The paper will appeal to both historians and American Studies scholars alike. Historians will appreciate the reassessment of the antiwar movement, and American Studies scholars will find the cultural context in which the lecture event took place to be a useful comment on class and privilege in American political life. Also, the Massachusetts Historical Society would likely be interested in the paper, as it chronicles a significant event in its recent history.