The No1 Ethical retailer for Books, CD’s, DVD’s & Games
30 Day Refund Guarantee

The Uses and Abuses of History

The Uses and Abuses of History

by ProfessorMargaretMacMillan (Author)

  • New

    Paperback 2010

    $10.09
Synopsis

The past is capricious enough to support every stance - no matter how questionable. In 2002, the Bush administration decided that dealing with Saddam Hussein was like appeasing Hitler or Mussolini, and promptly invaded Iraq. Were they wrong to look to history for guidance? No; their mistake was to exaggerate one of its lessons while suppressing others of equal importance. History is often hijacked through suppression, manipulation, and, sometimes, even outright deception. MacMillan's book is packed full of examples of the abuses of history. In response, she urges us to treat the past with care and respect.

$10.09

Save:$1.16 (10%)

Quantity

20+ in stock

More Information

Format: Paperback
 Pages: 256
 Publisher: Profile Books
Published: 01 Apr 2010
ISBN 10: 184668210X
ISBN 13: 9781846682100
Book Overview: 'MacMillan has written illuminatingly on topics as diverse as the 1919 Paris peace conference and Nixon in China. Perhaps more unusually she is also a gifted writer, and her account of the various uses of history is wonderfully accessible. Her message - that we cannot help invoking the past when we try to shape the future, but should use it with due caution and humility - is a salutary one for politicians' John Gray

Media Reviews
No history lover should fail to digest the lessons of this short but brilliant book. -- Simon Heffer * Daily Telegraph *
A magnificent book, wise and timely * Tribune *
This is history used as its own best argument * Toronto Sun *
Swift and bracing * Independent *
Author Bio
MARGARET MacMILLAN is the renowned author of the international bestsellers The War that Ended Peace, Nixon in China and Peacemakers: The Paris Peace Conference of 1919 and Its Attempt to End War, which won the Duff Cooper Prize, the Hessell-Tiltman Prize, the Samuel Johnson Prize, and the 2003 Governor General's Literary Award in Canada. The past provost of Trinity College at the University of Toronto, she is now the warden of St. Antony's College at Oxford University.