To what extent should historians allow the circumstances of their time influence judgement and understanding of the past? This question was first famously raised in 1931 by Herbert Butterfield and, following his lead, the viewing of the past through the lens of the present came to be called whiggism. And ever since Butterfield, conventional historiographical wisdom has dictated that whiggism should be avoided at all cost. However, in the realm of certain ‘special histories’ such as those of science and technology, a critical factor intrudes not normally thought of in political, social or economic historiography: creativity. Such histories are ‘special’ not only because their respective domains demand specialized knowledge on the historians’ part but also because they are histories of creative work. In this paper we argue, drawing upon episodes in the history of computing that the historiography of such creative domains as technological invention and scientific discovery fully justifies adopting a whiggish interpretation.
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