History-Remembered, Recovered, Invented

by Bernard Lewis

The description for this book, History-Remembered, Recovered, Invented, will be forthcoming.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

111 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1975

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

Bernard Lewis was the Cleveland E. Dodge Professor of Near Eastern Studies Emeritus at Princeton University and the author of many critially acclaimed and bestselling books, including two number one New York Times bestsellers: What Went Wrong? and Crisis of Islam. The Middle East: A Brief History of the Last 2,000 Years was a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist. Internationally recognized as the greatest historian of the Middle East, he received fifteen honorary doctorates and his books have been translated into more than twenty languages.

Reviews

[Farzana]

A small but meaty reflection on the uses of history in life by a well known historian.

[عبدالرحمن عقاب · Rating 3 out of 5]

كتاب قديم للمؤرخ المعروف (برنارد لويس) يتحدث فيه المؤرخ عن التاريخ بتقسيماته وتوظيفاته، لا بمادته ومحتوياته.
فيرى التاريخ كجزء من الذاكرة الجمعية، تحتفظ به الناس بسلوكها وطقوسها واحتفالاتها وقصصها الشعبية؛ وهو التاريخ المتذكّر.
والتاريخ كمستخرج أكاديمي بحثيّ يجده الباحث ويناضل لكشفه وإظهاره، ويسميه التاريخ المستعاد. وقد يُقبل أو يُرفض مثل هذا التاريخ، بغض النظر عن صحته ودقته.
والتاريخ المُختلق، بدقائقه أو بمجموعه أو بإطاره؛ وهو التاريخ الذي يراد له أن يحققّ هدفاً ويؤدي وظيفة محددة.
ويتحدث المؤرخ هنا عن توظيفات التاريخ، وأهميته في ترسيخ السلطة وتبرير الحاضر أو هدم سلطة وطرح بديلها.
ويضرب الكاتب الأمثلة بقصة "مسادا" في التاريخ العبري، وشخصية "قورش" في التاريخ الفارسي. كيف استعيدت وكيف وُظّفَت.
الكتاب قصير ومكتوب بأسلوب سلس وواضح، وقد قرأته مترجماً للعربية ترجمة جيدة، من إصدارات منتدى العلاقات العربية والدولية.

[Serdar KARACA · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ilımlı olabilmek, orta yolu bulabilmek, sağduyulu davranabilmek için tarihe şuurla bakmak elzemdir. Bilgi karşısında temkinli olmak ve farklı ihtimallerin de olabileceğini akletmek yine elzemdir.
Kitabın bende bıraktığı intiba budur. Bu kitabı okumak için illaki tarihçi olmaya veya tarihe ilgi duymaya gerek yok. Biraz daha şuurlu yaşayabilmek için şuurlu bir topluma ihtiyacımız var ve bunun için de başkalarının da okumasına.

[Nazila · Rating 3 out of 5]

Recently, I'm interested in archeology, because of its impact on our today life. Maybe its impact is not tangible and direct but we can see how it helps the historians and politicians to interpret and manipilate the socio-cultural context of a society. the examples Bernard Lewis gives in the book are from Jewish society (Israel) Masada and Iran and Cyrus the Great.
For him, there are three ways we use the history: remember, recover and invent. The first one consists of statements about the past. it can be defined as description of collective mentality of a community or nation.
The second one the history of events and movements that are forgotten are recovered by historians and scholars. they study the records, documents, scripts and so on.
the last one is invention, what is he called it dangerous. because everybody can manipulate according to its intentions. it's exactly today we experience in Iranian society.