Or is the engine of history economics,

或者说历史前进的动力是经济
the grinding, on-the-ground process by which people carve out livelihoods

这个人们为了开拓自己的事业
over against other people's competition for the same livelihoods?

而毁掉他人生计的难以忍受的过程
It doesn't seem to matter what history you study,

你学习了哪段历史或你的切入点在哪
or where you look,

这都不重要
history always somehow comes around to this nexus, this collision,

历史总能让政治力量和经济力量之间
between forces of political power and forces of economics,

有着微妙的联系和冲突
and our job is always somehow to discern between them

我们要做的就是分清它们
and how they mix.

分清它们是怎样融合的
Now often, of course, the answer is that it's all one and the same thing.

当然答案通常都是同一个
Listen to this passage by a freedman in the South named Bailey Wyatt.

听听南方自由民贝利·怀亚特写的这篇文章
He got up and made a speech at a freedmen's political meeting.

他站起来在自由民政治集会上发表了演讲