AUGUST 2000
HISTORY MYSTERY TAKES SLEUTH/PROF ABROAD
By Marcia Welch
Special to the Florida State Times
For a while, Richard Greaves thought he might be a musician. And today he might be conducting at the Metropolitan Opera save one small impediment to musical success.
Musical talent.
And with that revelation made plainly clear in his days at tiny Bethel College in Minnesota, Greaves' musical career became history. Really history. And that's where he found his talent.
"I wanted to be a lawyer or musician," said Greaves, chairman of the Florida State history department. "But I had the recognition in college that I didn't have the ability to be a musician. With the help of very good instructors who managed to spark my curiosity, I came to history very late."
Lately, the accomplished historian is enjoying a much lauded
career. Greaves, 61, has won a prestigious Guggenheim Fellow-ship.
Winning the Guggenheim means Greaves will travel abroad for his
research on John Bunyan, the 17th century English writer.
"Richard Greaves is a faculty member who does it all and
who does it all with excellence," said Don Foss, dean of
the FSU College of Arts and Sciences. "The Guggenheim Award
is further testimony to his stature as an internationally recognized
historian."
Greaves said his interest in Bunyan began while he was a doctoral
student at The University of London.
"Bunyan is one of the most important writers in the corpus
of English literature," he said. "As a doctoral student,
I was intrigued by his thought and the way in which he incorporated
his religious beliefs in his two allegories, "The Pilgrim's
Progress" and "The Holy War."
Over time Greaves' interest in Bunyan became "more broadly
historical," so he is attempting to interpret the writer's
works in their "precise historical context."
In 1962, Greaves graduated magna cum laude with a master's degree
from Berkeley Baptist Divinity School. He never intended to be
a man of the cloth, but finds the link strong between religion
and history.
"The spectrum of history, if you look at the Western world,
has been shaped by religion," Greaves said. "You can't
understand history without religion."
"Fighting over religion in the late 17th century" helped
shape English government and later, our own constitution, he
said.
In a career spanning four decades, Greaves says new things
are being found in history all the time.
For one thing, new methodologies like demography are helping
historians find out how other classes in society lived. Details
of the lives of ordinary people are being discovered for the
first time.
On another front, Greaves said, researchers burrowing in old
books and papers are uncovering new things to help solve the
mysteries of the past.
"New things come from those who spend time in archives looking
at materials not seen or used before ... things found in the
homes of the aristocracy, for example," Greaves said. "As
it becomes available, it's like finding new evidence in a crime."
Greaves says another of his most rewarding jobs has been to
turn his students on to history.
"Working with young people is one of the gratifying things
about being a professor," he explained. "It's a thrill
watching people grasp something new or think about something
they already know in a new way. There's excitement to intellectual
give and take. I love a good argument."
Greaves takes leave from his students this fall when he travels to the United Kingdom on his Guggenheim Fellowship. He expects to be there for two months in pursuit of the materials he needs to complete his work on Bunyan. A draft, he says, should be ready by next spring. He does not expect easy going as he searches archives in England.
"A lot has been written on Bunyan over the years, but
the problem is that he didn't leave behind a single letter or
diary" Greaves lamented.
Greaves has his challenges. And like a good sleuth, he also has
his clues.
Bunyan, he believes, was clinically depressed. How to prove it?
"I'm bringing to bear the most recent studies on depression," he explained. "I will look at things specialists use to determine if someone is depressed, then look at his personal writings and see if there's evidence of depression."
Greaves, the professor and author, knows there is a mystery to Bunyan's life. In a few months, Greaves, the historian and sleuth, will put together his evidence to solve that mystery.
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