Telling the Truth about History (Norton Paperback)

by Lynn Hunt (Author), Margaret Jacob (Author), Joyce Appleby (Author)

New
Paperback
1995
$23.97

This text examines the problem of historical truth. Seeking the roots of contemporary historical study in the Enlightenment, the authors argue that a model of historical research, based on neutrality and objectivity, served historians well until World War II. After that post-modernism suggested history could not reveal the truth about the past and the rise of social history produced a great amount of statistics which effectively swamped the search for historical truth. Accepting that much of history teaching has been flawed, the authors nevertheless argue for an affirmation of historical knowledge against the doubts of the sceptics and the relativists, guiding the reader through the complex areas of political correctness and multiculturalism.

Synopsis

This text examines the problem of historical truth. Seeking the roots of contemporary historical study in the Enlightenment, the authors argue that a model of historical research, based on neutrality and objectivity, served historians well until World War II. After that post-modernism suggested history could not reveal the truth about the past and the rise of social history produced a great amount of statistics which effectively swamped the search for historical truth. Accepting that much of history teaching has been flawed, the authors nevertheless argue for an affirmation of historical knowledge against the doubts of the sceptics and the relativists, guiding the reader through the complex areas of political correctness and multiculturalism.

$23.97

Quantity

20+ in stock

More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 336
Edition: New Ed
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Published: 10 May 1995
ISBN 10: 0393312860
ISBN 13: 9780393312867

Media Reviews

It is hard to think of three historians better equipped to deal with threats to the discipline of history ... [which] is being fundamentally challenged in new ways. -- Gordon S. Wood A wise and moderate book. The authors, all distinguished historians ... ,speak with confidence about the value of both the historian's traditional craft and modern criticism of it. Their sane and readable discussion should give hope to [those] who ... believe in the possibility-even the pleasure-of writing history. -- Caroline Walker Bynum A confident, breezy account of the historical profession's encounters with post-modernism and multiculturalism. -- David A. Hollinger

Author Bio

Joyce Appleby (1929-2016) was a professor of history emerita at UCLA, the author of Shores of Knowledge, The Relentless Revolution, and the coauthor of Telling the Truth about History, among many other works. A former president of the American History Association, she was awarded the 2009 Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. Prize for distinguished writing in American history from the Society of American Historians. Lynn Hunt is Distinguished Research Professor at UCLA, former president of the American Historical Association, and author of numerous works, including Inventing Human Rights and Telling the Truth about History. She lives in Los Angeles. Margaret Jacob is an author and UCLA professor. Her writings and lectures focus on the work of Newton's immediate followers, and on the British radicals and romantics of the 1790s.