Telling the Truth About History

Media:	Paperback
Author:	Joyce Appleby, Lynn Hunt, Margaret Jacob
Publisher:	W. W. Norton & Company
Release date:	01 April, 1995
List price:	~~$16.95~~
Our price:	$11.53 that is 32% off!

Telling the Truth About History

Average rating: Stars

Blatant misinformation and misinterpretation!

This work is grossly inaccurate and requires a multitude of corrections before it should be considered valid in any regard.

These "historians" criticize Isaac Newton: He is said to have rejected the philosophical position of Descartes because it might challenge conventional religion and lead to social chaos and atheism. Such criticisms amount only to the charge that scientists are human. How Newton was buffeted by the intellectual currents of his time is of course of interest to the historian of ideas; but it has little bearing on the truth of his propositions. For them to be generally accepted, they must convince atheists and theists alike. This is just what happened.

Appleby and her colleagues claim that "When Darwin formulated his theory of evolution, he was an atheist and a materialist," and suggest that evolution was a product of a purported atheist agenda. They have hopelessly confused cause and effect. Darwin was about to become a minister of the Church of England when the opportunity to sail on HMS Beagle presented itself. His religious ideas, as he himself described them, were at the time highly conventional. He found every one of the Anglican Articles of Faith entirely believable. Through his interrogation of Nature, through science, it slowly dawned on him that at least some of his religion was false. That's why he changed his religious views.

Appleby and her colleagues are appalled at Darwin's description of "'the low morality of savages ... their insufficient powers of reasoning ... [their] weak power of self-command,'" and state that "Now many people are shocked by his racism." But there was no racism at all, as far as I can tell, in Darwin's comments. He was alluding to the inhabitants of Tierra del Fuego, suffering from grinding scarcity in the most barren and Antarctic province of Argentina. When he described a South American woman of African origin who threw herself to her death rather than submit to slavery, he noted that it was only prejudice that kept us from seeing her defiance in the same heroic light as we would a similar act by the proud matron of a noble Roman family. He was himself almost thrown off the Beagle by Captain FitzRoy for his militant opposition to the Captain's racism. Darwin was head and shoulders above most of his contemporaries in this regard.

Appleby, Hunt and Jacob - these so-called historians - are in obvious need of a lesson in history. Also, it wouldn't hurt to pick up a dictionary and learn what Truth really means: a fact that has been verified; conformity to fact or actuality; a true statement.

Telling the Truth About History - Joyce Appleby, Lynn Hunt, Margaret Jacob

Not the "Whole" Truth

Telling the Truth presents a very solid overview of western historiography's evolution and provides a provocative argument for the broadening of perspectives of what is valid for historians to include in their search for accurate causes for past events. The authors' intent to model the democratic practice they preach through collective authorship of the essay was evident, and one wonders if it would have been strengthened further by an examination of the impact their own historical context has had on the creation of their individual ideologies. In short, use themselves as case studies. This would be revolutionary of course, but a potentially very interesting historical version of self-analysis: three professional historians, women educated in the United States, during the 1970s, examining how their own environment and training shaped their views.

The emphasis on the significance of the printing press and the loss of clerical authority over publication was well stated. Left unexamined was the importance of the rise of the merchant middle class in Southern Europe, which is surprising considering the social history described later in the text. The Civil War's nationalizing effect and the lack of Black America's inclusion in the traditional American narrative are well founded, but leaves the subject's treatment woefully incomplete. The authors would have been able to draw a more accurate picture of rising American nationalism by including the War of 1812 in their analysis for example. And the nation's history of immigration and resulting discrimination, which includes Asians and Latin Americans as well as Europeans and Africans, is far more complex than presented. In short, the opportunity to use the immigrant experience as historical evidence for the authors' views was under utilized. The passing reference to Native American experiences underscored the authors' main point, but is not drawn out. And for American historians promoting a more gendered approach to history to leave out the suffrage movement was shocking to this reader.

Joyce Appleby, Lynn Hunt, Margaret Jacob - Telling the Truth About History

Questionable Historiography

Did history begin with European theorists and scientists? From the perspective of Joyce Appleby, Lynn Hunt, and Margaret Jacob, it appears that way. They make immense references to Michel Foucault, Martin Heidegger, Jacques Deridda, and Isaac Newtown without really coming to a conclusion to their contribution to the "truth" about history. These major contributors to history, be it to European or American, belong within the confines of a philosophical and theoretical analysis rather than trying to convince the reader that they make the bulk of historiography or the study of history.

Appleby and cohorts rant back and forth about the Englightenment and the age of old, the eighteenth century and early nineteenth century, but never quite come to a consensus of history as a whole. The chapter entitled "Competing Histories of America" merely appeared to be a snore that name dropped and did not represent an objective and revealing analysis as it appeared it should have. The section, "The Implication of Social History for Multiculturalism" should have presented what the title stated, however, it did not. It had been quite disappointing reading this. Not one mention of Native Americans, Asian Americans, oh one name drop of W.E.B. Dubois in reference to African Americans.

Overall analysis, this has been an assessment towards intellectual history. This book should not be taught in a history and theory class, but rather be provided for those who seek an optional supplementary reading list that the professor assigns. Tbis book has too much bias that leans toward the left. Possibly, the authors had a little free time on their hands and they decided to collaborate for the fun of it. Postmodernism appears to be a complex topic that even these three scholars had not been able to explain in laymen terms. Otherwise, TELLING THE TRUTH ABOUT HISTORY does not cut it as a title.

I'm so glad that history is alive and well even if one does not read this book. If one wants a good conversation and debate about history, these three scholars' perspective would lend much to the discussion. It would probably raise much opinions on the subject of history, and its place in society no matter what place in the world you live and learn.

Discount Bookstore