Mary Ritter Beard Quotes
Democracy cannot sustain itself amid a high degree of violence.
Beard, Mary Ritter. A Woman Making History: Mary Ritter Beard Through Her Letters. Edited by Nancy F. Cott, Yale University Press, 1991.
This is an excellent example of the twisted, self-fulfilling logic of the Afrikaners in justifying apartheid. Many Afrikaners were inveterate racists, and were also usually armed which was a rural tradition of their early immigration and the Zulu and Boer Wars. Those whites would cause a riot if a black was allowed into a white audience performance. That in turn would cause chaos. Therefore mixed audiences could not be allowed. It never occurred to Botha and his colleagues that the government’s responsibility was to control and restrict the white rioters and instigators. This was not unique Afrikaner thinking; the same logic prevailed throughout the American South in the Jim Crowe segregation era.
While it is true that thus far in human history war has been the only way, that does not necessarily mean that that is the only way. The establishment of free trade used to be only accomplished by force or arms or fear of such, but in modern times, common markets and trading zones are being created for economic and domestic desires for economic development. Even most non democratic countries have wanted to create a larger market for its goods and services and have joined larger organizations irrespective of military defeat and its fear. See {553984} for perspective and hope relating to this quotation.
Mary Ritter Beard was an American historian, author, women's suffrage activist, and women's history archivist who was also a lifelong advocate of social justice. As a Progressive Era reformer, Beard was active in both the labor and women's rights movements. She also authored several books on women's role in history including On Understanding Women (1931), America Through Women's Eyes (editor, 1933), and Woman as Force in History: A Study in Traditions and Realities (1946), her major work. In addition, she collaborated with her husband, historian Charles Austin Beard, as coauthor of seven textbooks, most notably The Rise of American Civilization (1927), two volumes, and America in Midpassage: A Study of the Idea of Civilization (1939) and The American Spirit (1942), the third and fourth volume of The Rise of American Civilization series. A standalone book, Basic History of the United States, was their best-selling work.
