Editorial Review

Little seems to delight historianJames W. Loewen, author ofRead more

Reviews (65)

Should be "Lies In This Book"
I first thought that the book was pretty entertaining until the section on the Mining Hall of Fame.I actually know about this museum in Leadville Co.The author falsely alludes to the museum being a product of "big business" to promote their agenda.This museum actually took many years of interested individuals' efforts to create. The author seems to be upset because the museum doesn't tell the whole story about mining methods and their impact.This museum was never intended to do that.There are dozens upon dozens of mining museums across the country that does this.The Mining Hall of Fame primarily focuses on notable people who have contributed to mining in the US.Many of the inductees had not only a major impact on mining in the US, but also the world.The author is critical because the type of people HE would like to see inducted in the museum are not represented, and alludes to racism.He uses an example of a Native American "discovering" uranium in the 1950's in New Mexico, and asking why this person is not in the Hall of Fame.Gee, could it be that uranium was actually discovered many years before?After all, they did mine uranium in NM for the atomic bomb during the 1940's.I did not finish the book because it was obvious that using actual facts were beyond the scope of this book.....

Censorship?
"Lies Across America" is a wolf in sheep's clothing.Disguised behind this book's apparently innocuous political correctness lies a new form of pernicious censorship.Even though the author claims that he has no intent to rip down monuments, much of his reasoning is deeply flawed.Instead of doing original research into the various subjects that he writes on, like a good professor should do, he summarizes a book, says it presents correct conclusions, and then says that the old thinking is wrong.Case in point, is the chapter on the burning of Columbia, South Carolina during the Civil War.Instead of looking at all the evidence on what happened when Sherman marched into the city in 1865, Loewen quotes two books which he seems to think draw the correct conclusions, and says that Sherman really had nothing to do with burning the city.Thus, almost all the historical markers in Columbia are wrong, or so Loewen seems to hold.Not the most convincing argument.
Or, what your momma, high school history teacher and stifling American conformity hid from you
Did you know that, in language backdated from the McCarthy era, Helen Keller was a "Com-symp," a Communist sympathizer? Well, no, because that wouldn't be so edifying.
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Subjects:  1. Errors, inventions, etc    2. General    3. Historic sites    4. Historiography    5. History    6. History - General History    7. History: American    8. Monuments    9. United States    10. United States - General    11. American history    12. History / United States / General    13. USA   

Reviews (1)

Teaching Critical Thinking?Not.
In my opinion, the authors should introduce evidence in The Evidence rather than making bold, uncorroborated statements in Questions to Consider (thus tainting the evidence with bias); however the authors are prone to guiding the reader to a pre-chosen conclusion.This, to me, is unconscionable in a book purported to help students become critical thinkers.The authors apparently use a different definition for "critical thinker" than I am familiar with.In truth, the book intends to be censor morum, teaching the student to become a politically-correct thinker.Read more

Subjects:  1. General    2. History    3. History - General History    4. History: World    5. American history    6. Historiography    7. USA   

Subjects:  1. Archives    2. Documentation    3. Essays    4. Historiography    5. History    6. History - General History    7. History: World    8. Memory    9. Social aspects    10. History / Historiography    11. Library & Information Sciences   

Reviews (3)

Going to the Sources
In his book, Going to the Sources: A Guide to Historical Research and Writing, Anthony Brundage offers a concise and informative guide on the often daunting task of historical research and writing. Throughout the book, the author maintains that history is a “dynamic and evolving process.” Therefore, it is not only important to think and write like a historian but to also “explore ways in which historians actually go about examining the past, constantly searching for fresh patterns and meanings, and developing new methodologies to achieve them.” (Brundage xi)
Everything you should have learned about libraries...
The chapter on how to use a library is worth the ten bucks all on its own.It is exactly the kind of overview of research materials and their use that librarians give when someone bothers to ask!Overall, the book is simple, straightforward, and USEFUL.Everything you need to know and nothing you don't when it comes to writing history papers.The couple of hours it will take you to read this book will pay off in the depth and quality of your paper, if you follow Brundage's research advice.This is THE book to buy if you have never written a research paper and have never been inside your campus library before.It is written for history majors, but there are only two chapters that other disciplines would want to skip.Most of the book is helpful to anyone who wants to learn something from their assignment -- not just get it done.

A Fine Introduction to Historical Research
Anthony Brundage's book is a well-written, easy to understand introduction to the often confusing world of historical research.Read more

Subjects:  1. Data processing    2. Historiography    3. History    4. History - General History    5. Methodology    6. Reference    7. Research    8. Writing & editing guides   

Subjects:  1. Historiography    2. History    3. History - General History    4. History and criticism    5. History: World    6. Holocaust    7. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)    8. Judaism - History    9. Personal narratives    10. World War, 1939-1945    11. Europe    12. Religion / Judaism / History    13. The Holocaust   

Reviews (12)

This work has not aged well
A study of history had been on my reading list for a while, I initially thought I'd go for the entire series but ended up reading this abridgement instead. I'm glad I chose the abridgement because reading the original would have been an even bigger waste of time.
The case for History as a guide
I came to this book through a personal study of the secrets of human development. Singapore's miracle of development from 1970 on was the immediate precursor to discovering this work. The architect, Lee Kuan Yew, repeated read Toynbee's work through his career and used the challenge and response theory effectively to lift his country.Study of History is an enduring masterpiece. Clearly, it is more detailed and rich addressing western civilizations than eastern, but some of this imbalance might be due to the abridgement.I also find it interesting to contrast the book with Jared Diamond's "history as science" theory and would have loved to have seen Toynbee's consideration of Diamond's scholarship. Though Toynbee's emphasis is on the social, cultural and spiritual levels and boxes in geo physical factors in accord with the science of his era, I believe the two works complement each other in the end.

His emphasis is better than more modern works
People who consider Michael Moore's latest movie, `Fahrenheit 9/11,' sort of crazy, particularly when it is talking about attempts to keep Americans afraid that they are about to be attacked in some way that no one could guess, or, conversely, when it provides R-rated examples of a CD that American troops are able to listen to in their helmets through an armored fighting vehicle's soundtrack system to illustrate how pumped up troops feel going into combat, could feel that the abridgement by D. C. Somervell of Arnold Toynbee's multi-volume set into two small volumes is too selective to encompass the whole picture.People with strong political opinions might even agree with Walter Kaufmann, at the end of his book, FROM SHAKESPEARE TO EXISTENTIALISM, that Arnold J. Toynbee's attempt to write A STUDY OF HISTORY in ten volumes, which provides abundant lessons which leaders of today ought to heed to avoid the ignominious fate of numerous nations, peoples, and civilizations who are far less prosperous than Americans today, if certain outstanding obligations are not considered and everything which must be reported as income for tax purposes is assumed to benefit someone, actually amounts to a form of argument in which, "His method is what Stephen Potter calls `one-upmanship.'Where a red herring might be recognized and challenged, the queer fish that Toynbee introduces with an air of mildly bored authority silence all opposition--unless you either happen to know about them or have the patience to find out."(Kaufmann, FSTE, Chapter 20, `Toynbee and Religion,' p. 413).Read more

Subjects:  1. Atlases, Historical    2. Civilization    3. Historiography    4. History    5. History - General History    6. History Of Civilization And Culture (General)    7. History: World    8. Literary Criticism    9. Medieval    10. Philosophy    11. World - General    12. History / World    13. History, World    14. World history   

Reviews (1)

One of the most important thinkers of the 20th century
Castoriadis was born in 1922 in cosmopolitan Constantinople (now Istanbul)from Greek parents. He grew up in Athens in a cultivated and fertile social environment. Castoriadis belongs to the generation of Greek thinkers that left Greece (in 1945 because of the Greek civil war)and matured in Europe (Axelos, Kranaki, Papaioannou etc.).The imaginary istitution of society is his landmark work. In this work he covers several subjects (marxism, revolutionary theory, social imaginary and the individual..).A few words from this work will show the depthand clarity of his thought: "Is my desire infantile? But it is the situation we live in infantile. That the life is given to us, the law is given to us. In an infantile situation life is given for nothing;and the law is given without anything (sans rien), without a possible discussion. But what I want is the opposite: I want to live my life and if possible to give life .....The person who is in an infantile level is the person who is apolitical and conformist...the person who replaces the private father with the social anonymous father... " ... Read more

Subjects:  1. General    2. Historiography    3. Philosophy    4. Philosophy Of History    5. Political Ideologies - Communism & Socialism    6. Political Science    7. Politics/International Relations    8. Social Philosophy    9. Philosophy / General    10. Social Sciences    11. Social history    12. Western philosophy, from c 1900 -   

Reviews (4)

Restall's Flawed Analysis
Restall's conclusions add nothing to what Tzvetan Todorov has already said in The Conquest of America-which Seven Myths gets wrong in its dismissal of Todorov's crucial point about the role of writing in the Conquest.Merely being able to put information down on paper isn't the issue.What Todorov means is much more complex, and is grounded in evidence from anthropology to neuroscience (e.g., Ong, Goody, Havelock, Panksepp).First, with written words fixed in front of you, you can re-read, check for inconsistencies, compare to other accounts to assess accuracy and consider alternatives, even elaborate.You, in fact, practice thinking skills you have little opportunity to develop unless literate.Restall also sees no reason to prefer an alphabetic system over, say, Aztec pictographs that interpreters used to recall memorized speeches embodying the culture.But only with an alphabet can you unambiguously set down every single thing a person can think; and only then can an idea be fully worked out and fully critiqued.Evidence shows that the way you think when you internalize an alphabetic written language is significantly more abstract, analytical, and adaptable than when you rely primarily on speech.Second, as Restall claims, "disease," "native disunity," "Spanish steel," and "the culture of war," are causes of the Aztec defeat, but, as Todorov rightly argues, they are only the immediate causes.Underlying them is the ability to productively command signs (whether words or behaviors)-an ability that hinges on writing.It's because the Spaniards had an extensive body of written knowledge that they had steel.It's because of Cort�s' writing-based innovative thinking that he could exploit information about the "native" situation to win allies.It's because of the Aztecs' speech-based tradition-dominated thinking that they didn't see the Spaniards as a dangerous new breed of enemy that needed to be dispatched-long before smallpox arrived with a later expedition-and didn't effectively adapt battle conventions to fight this new, unpredictable enemy.Aztec society, as Todorov emphasizes, was NOT inferior to Spanish society in any absolute way.The Aztecs clearly had a complex and highly successful culture.But, at that moment in history, faced with a new kind of enemy shaped by written language, they did not successfully compete.Restall uncritically dismisses Todorov's argument instead of getting it straight.

Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest
Iconoclastic, restrained and erudite, this outstanding contribution to historical truth was judged by the Economist to be one of the ten best history books of 2003.

Underscoring seven key myths and the misconceptions
Seven Myths Of The Spanish Conquest by Matthew Restall (Associate Professor of Latin American History, Women's Studies, and Anthropology, and Director of Latin American Studies, Pennsylvania State University) presents an informed and informative survey of the events of war, dominance, and assimilation associated with the Spanish conquest of the New World and which have all too often been misinterpreted or skewed down through the ages. Underscoring seven key myths and the misconceptions and fallacies surrounding them, Seven Myths Of The Spanish Conquest unravels oversimplified and all too commonly held precepts to show the Spanish Conquest as a far more tangled and complex web of events and motives than popular memory or the remnants of high school textbooks convey. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. America    2. Conquest, 1519-1540    3. Europe - Spain & Portugal    4. Historiography    5. History    6. History - General History    7. History: World    8. Latin America - General    9. Mexico    10. Myth    11. Spaniards    12. World - Colonial Studies    13. American history: c 1500 to c 1800    14. European history (ie other than Britain & Ireland)    15. History / Latin America    16. History, World | Latin American    17. Modern period, c 1500 onwards    18. Spain    19. The Americas   

Reviews (3)

partially uncommitted, self involved thinking
I must agree with the reader who says there is more style than substance in this book. This applies particularly to S. Felman's part of the book. D. Laub's articles are straightforward and clear, Felman's essays, however, are intellectually self involved, and convey a nervous kind of circular argumentation. This comes across as a very neurotic writing. But may be it's a sign of the times that trauma becomes a pretext for the somewhat usual textual interpretations of academic authors. May be it's also to be expected that most writers fail somewhat when they try to talk about personal or collective suffering. It is a difficult subject for sure. Read the book for its failures.

naive, furious and paranoid
Compared to most reflections on trauma and the holocaust (especially academic pig-headedness) this one stands out for its furious energy (often synonymous with intelligence), its naivete but also its paranoidintellectual evasiveness: in the end it doesn't know what it wants to say,which may have to do with its often tenuous, or non existent personalrelation to its topic. If you like style over substance this is a definitemust: Its rage still beats most academic useless blabla.

One of the most important books for our times
Testimony a brilliant and profound book. Analysing stories from the Holocaust, Felman and Laub argue the importance for society of witnessing those who have lived beyond the boundaries of existing cultural systems, and therefore their own capacity for witnessing themselves. A compelling and understated book for anyone interested in the boundaries of our own history and epistemology, and the hazards of venturing beyond them ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Authors    2. Literary Criticism    3. Literature - Classics / Criticism    4. Psychic trauma    5. Psychoanalysis and literature    6. Psychology    7. Semiotics & Theory    8. Cultural studies    9. Historiography    10. Literary Collections / General    11. Literary studies: general    12. The Holocaust    13. World history: from c 1900 -   

Subjects:  1. Historiography    2. History    3. History - General History    4. History: World    5. Holocaust    6. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)    7. Influence    8. Moral and ethical aspects    9. Europe    10. European history: Second World War    11. The Holocaust    12. World history   

Reviews (4)

The second generation reflects on the Holocaust
This profound work is a reflection of a member of the ` second- generation' on the Holocaust. It contains a detailed and moving description of the whole experience of ` learning' that the second- generation goes through. It describes the particular burdens including ` significance envy ` that the second - generation lives with. It in the course of this is also a memoir in which Hoffman tells the story of her own parents and family.She describes what it meant to grow up first in Poland, then in Vancouver as the child of two people who had been saved by hiding during the war.There is an extremely interesting section telling of her and her sister's return to their parents native village in the Ukraine, and their meeting with the family who hid them for two years. There are extremely poignant and painful revelations. One is of her father's only near the end of his life describing how he had to alone go out and bury his two beloved brothers killed just near the end of the war when they had apparently been saved.
deep thoughts written in polished, gem-like prose
Eva Hoffman's book-length meditation on the Holocaust, written from her perspective as a daughter of survivors, is beautifully written.Her well crafted sentences reveal the careful thinking she has done as she ponders how her generation, born into sunny safety after the horrors their parents had known, has viewed those events that cast a shadow over their parents' lives.
Remembering beyond the survivors.
As the Holocaust passes further into history so are the survivors. The direct memories are being replaced by stores, books, museums. The author is a child of Polish Jews who survived the Holocaust with the help of neighbors, but whose entire families perished.She investigates the historical, psychological and moral implications of the second generation experience. How do you maintain an authentic version of its events.Read more

Subjects:  1. Historiography    2. History    3. History - General History    4. History: World    5. Holocaust    6. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)    7. Influence    8. Memory    9. Psychological aspects    10. Europe    11. History of specific subjects    12. Postwar period, 1945 to c 2000    13. The Holocaust   

Reviews (13)

At once an excellent and dismal overview of socialism
The American critical writer Edmund Wilson attempted in this book to give an overview of the historical development of socialism, or rather the many socialisms, until the 1930s. However, the result is a very mixed bag: sometimes Wilson reaches great heights, but sometimes it is bare nonsense too.
Interesting perspective on the Marx/Engels relationship
I didn't make it the whole way through this densely written and intimidating book, but I was absorbed by one aspect: its portrayal of the human interaction between Marx and Engels.
You mean the 1917 October Revolution??
A fine example of the sort of journalistic impressionism that doesn't get written any more. Just make sure you don't actually think you're getting a guide to Marxist thought or the Russian Revolution (& don't trust reviewers like the one below who can't be bothered to get one of the most important dates of the 20th century right - the revolution was one year old by 1918). This is an impressive book for its scope, as an examination of the writing of history, but certainly not as a philosophically astute account of socialism. Wilson famously detested abstract thought, & manages to bungle everything from the Hegelian dialectic to Marx's own historical materialism. (The chapter on "The Myth of the Dialectic" should be read with a salt shaker at hand.) ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Communism    2. Historiography    3. History    4. History: World    5. Philosophy    6. Political Ideologies - Communism & Socialism    7. Political Science    8. Politics / Current Events    9. Socialism    10. World - General    11. History / General    12. History / World   

Reviews (4)

who do historians say that I am?
Who was Jesus of Nazareth? Today, few scholars doubt that Jesus actually existed, that he was a real historical figure. But exactly who or what was he? A raving madman? A prophet? A self-proclaimed Messiah? Or...?
Understanding Jesus
Powell's book might not be for everyone.If you are a hardend Christian then you may want to gloss over this book because you may become so irate that you will go medieval witch hunting for all atheists.
Clear, scholarly, meaningful, and even devotional!
I couldn't get enough of this book.Powell is a wonderful writer, and he introduces us to the perspectives of Historical Jesus scholars of the last two centuries with absolute clarity and just the right details.I just had a lot of fun reading on the different scholarly views on who that ancient man of sorrows was. Powell seemingly has no axe to grind, seems completely competent to plough the terrain, and makes the whole trip worth it with the last two pages of the book....After this huge deluge of information about what Jesus did or did not say; after all of the guessing concerning Jesus message; after probing why Jesus has remained so controversial after 2000 years, Powell offers a tantalizing scenario concerning the very first Christian words ever penned on the last two pages (his only personal reflections in the book).I had to wipe the tears from my eyes after that.Read more

Subjects:  1. Ancient Religions    2. Christianity - Theology - Christology    3. Christology    4. Historicity    5. History    6. Jesus Christ    7. Person and offices    8. Religion    9. Theology - Christology    10. Historiography    11. The historical Jesus   

Editorial Review

What a delightful book about books and people who love books! As a second generation bibliophile, a possible bibliomane who had several people move out of my house a year ago because they erroneously believed that my books were taking over the household, and a devout employee of "Earth's Biggest Bookstore," I can vouch that Basbanes accurately describes the glorious role of book collectors as archivists of human knowledge, and -- in continual counterpoint -- sometimes pathologically obsessed book junkies. ... Read more

Reviews (16)

We are not alone!
Yes, dear friends, there are other bibliophiles out there and this book takes you to their libraries.A great volume for your "books on books" shelf (those of you who've read Ex Libris whill know what I'm talking about), a great book for reading and rereading.Its witty, charming, humourous and outright fun.I can't recommend it more, go get it as fast as you can!

A reminder that us biblioholics are not alone....
For a book so long, I was finished reading it in quite a short amount of time - because I did not want to stop. The tales of various book collectors were fascinating and gave me a sense of the varieties of my madness for book collecting. Although I do not have the desires, pickiness, nor funds to do that which some of the subjects of the book have done I am quite pleased to find my humble collecting habits at least behaviorally in good company.

Worth the price just for one chapter
First, to enjoy this book, you really have to love books.Now, I'm not saying love *reading*, I mean the actual book.That graceful innovation that allows us to transmit our thoughts and feelings to others and through time.Basbanes has the love and speaks to others who share the affliction of bibliophilia.
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Subjects:  1. Bibliomania    2. Book collecting    3. Books    4. Books & Reading    5. Historiography    6. History    7. History - General History    8. History: American    9. Antiques & collectables: books, manuscripts, ephemera & printed matter    10. History of specific subjects    11. USA   

Subjects:  1. Anthropology - General    2. Archaeology / Anthropology    3. Deindustrialization    4. Historiography    5. History    6. History: American    7. Lowell    8. Massachusetts    9. Sociology - General    10. Sociology - Urban    11. United States - State & Local - General    12. Urban anthropology    13. Urban renewal    14. American history    15. Local history    16. USA    17. Urban communities   

Reviews (2)

Turchin makes his logic crystal clear and compelling
In his book "War and Peace and War," Turchin makes his points with great clarity.Consider his treatment of wealth gradients, namely that the rich get richer while the poor get poorer.Using a simple computer model shows us how great wealth gradients arise unavoidably. In the model, a finite amount of land (wealth) is owned in equal parcels by a finite population. The wealth is passed on to the next generation by inheritance. Only (single) children inherit their parent's land. At the same time, siblings of families that bear more than one child, must, necessarily, inherent less or no land at all. It may be that the eldest sibling gets all the land, leading to "worthless" siblings, or that the eldest gets a larger share of the wealth, or that all siblings get the same share. Regardless, only children will own more wealth than the children of families with more than one child. In one generation wealth gradients arise. It gets worse as the generations grow. But this is not the complete picture. Those who own large chunks of land relative to those who own little chunks of land will need help in turning their land wealth into income. They will hire out poorer people.
A new avenue for historical research
I remember that some years ago when I discovered Read more

Subjects:  1. Anthropology - General    2. Historiography    3. Historiometry    4. History    5. History: World    6. Life Sciences - Biological Diversity    7. Mathematical models    8. Sociology    9. Biological Sciences    10. History / Historiography    11. Mathematical modelling    12. Probability & statistics   

Reviews (31)

Couldn't put it down
Read this book!I never thought a history book would be one I could not put down.It's enlightening and eye-opening.It's a broad, fascinating history.

An Empire or Liberty?Depends on Your Perspective
Many reviewers have commented that Taylor's "American Colonies" gives indigenous peoples a larger role in North American history than most previous studies do.This perspective is relevant to the interpretation of the American Revolution.
More of the same!
The reviews of this book are greater entertainment than actually reading the book. It makes for hard going, however, the insights into the true American history are many. The threads of the migration of the indigenous population is more than fascinating and should be included in every textbook in schools. Yet the main disappointment, other than the fact many have complained about (ie: the death of Kamehameha), is that this a more of a professorial dissertation rather than a vibrant book, which a friend of mine from the long ago and faraway, Roxie Yonkey, also noted. This is one of those times when I wish to debate the wherefores with my dear friend! ... Read more

Subjects:  1. 1600-1775, Colonial period    2. Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775    3. Historiography    4. History    5. History - General History    6. History: American    7. United States    8. United States - Colonial Period    9. United States - General    10. History / General   

Subjects:  1. 17th century    2. Constitutional history    3. Europe - Great Britain - General    4. Great Britain    5. History    6. History & Theory - General    7. History - General History    8. Political Science    9. Politics/International Relations    10. Constitution: government & the state    11. English law: constitutional & administrative    12. Historiography    13. Political Science / History & Theory   

Reviews (1)

The Art of Historiography
Fritz Stern has compiled a wide-ranging collection of original source materials written by historians, ancient and modern, that illuminate the nature of history as a discipline and a process. Beginning with Voltaire and Barthold Niebuhr and progressing through Macaulay, Jaures, Turner, Trevelyan, Beard, Barzun, and ending with C. Vann Woodward, Stern focuses on different roles history has assumed over a period of thousands of years as well as the various genres and subtopics in which history has made itself a home. These topics include cultural history, economic history, literature, positivism, materialism, scientific history, relativism and others. Stern opens each chapter and discussion of a new historian with insightful preliminary and background information that helps to set the historian in a better context than if it were not to appear. Other than this, his presence is undetectable, which speaks to his ability as a historian himself to remain detached from his work.