Abstract
The enduring relevance of Herbert Butterfield and his most famous book "The Whig Interpretation of History" are examined. Butterfield's insistence that we learn to study the past for the past's sake remains a commendable and profoundly humane one, but it is incomplete and unsustainable on its own, precisely because it asks us to suspend our need for larger sustaining meanings in history, a need that can be held at bay only for so long.