The Uses and Abuses of History - Hardcover

MacMillan, Margaret

3.64

1,939 ratings by Goodreads

9780670066803: The Uses and Abuses of History

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 067006680X ISBN 13: 9780670066803

Publisher: Viking, 2008

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History is useful when it is used properly: to understand why we and those we must deal with think and react in certain ways. It can offer examples to inform our decisions and guesses about the consequences of our actions. But we should be wary of looking to history for dogmatic lessons.We should distrust those who abuse history when they call on it to justify unreasonable claims to land, for example, or restitution. MacMillan illustrates how dangerous history can be in the hands of nationalistic or religious or ethnic leaders who use it to foster a sense of grievance and a desire for revenge.

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About the Author:

MARGARET MacMILLAN is the renowned author of Women of the Raj, Stephen Leacock (Extraordinary Canadians series), and the international bestsellers Nixon in China and Paris 1919: Six Months That Changed the World, which won the 2003 Governor General’s Award and the 2002 Samuel Johnson Prize. She is also the author of The Uses and Abuses of History. The past provost of Trinity College at the University of Toronto, she is now the warden of St. Antony’s College at Oxford University.

Review:

MacMillan is a distinguished historian who 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 * Guardian * This is history used as its own best argument -- Geoff Pevere * The Toronto Sun * In a world where the spin doctor has replaced the historian, MacMillan reminds readers of the importance of dispassionate, fact-driven narrative, as opposed to reassuring or self-serving accounts that pass for history while burying the unpleasant truths. -- Michael Harris * Ottawa Sun * This is a must read for anyone who wants to understand the importance of correctly understanding the past. * Publishers Weekly * an elegant writer as well as a notable historian * Sunday Telegraph * A thoughtful and accessible study * BBC History Magazine * 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 * Margaret MacMillan's polemical The Uses and Abuses of History is full of robust common sense * NZ Listener * This small compact book is one of the best summaries of the ways that history can be put into illicit ideological service or manipulated for purposes of propaganda. It is one hundred percent lucid and could be read by the general reader as well as the academic * Investigate - NZ * Erudite and thought-provoking -- Penelope Lively Both timely and justified -- Tom Holland * Observer *

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