Who was Thomas Kuhn?
HOWE: Well, he was a historian of the history of science who wrote that disciplines are periodically transformed by sudden paradigm shifts, for instance, when Copernicus suggested that explaining planets as revolving around the sun could simplify and improve explanations of how the universe worked. LAMB: Let me finish that quote: “As Thomas Kuhn predicted in The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, all disciplines of learning are periodically transformed by great works of interpretation, capable of producing a paradigmatic shift in thinking. I think Generations is such a work in American history.” Why all of a sudden has the word “paradigm” become so used in this town? STRAUSS: Well, people are looking for a new way to connect themselves to the larger story of America. That is the problem. We’ve felt adrift over the past 10 years, and we think that the way history has been presented over the past couple of decades has been more in terms of the little pieces and people are not as intere
