Status Updates From The Nature of History

“We cannot escape from history. Our lives are governed by what happened in the past, our decisions by what we believe to have happened. Without a knowledge of history, man and society would run adrift, rudderless craft on the uncharted sea of time.”

Also the excessively western focus I find a bit disappointing though absolutely justifiable and understandable. The use of the term Anglo-Saxon as a synonym for Anglophone also grated on me but I’m not best places to comment on that.

I should add I’m not saying the author did it deliberately nor am I trying to do a disservice to him, my patience is just wearing thin and this poor book turned out to be the proverbial straw.

The book overall ok but I’m slightly frustrated now about the use of ‘men’ as a catch-all term. I’m used to this in older literature and I don’t make a fuss, but this was written in the 80s + it now seems pigheadedly deliberate. And I am fed up. I am fed up of writers who don’t even try. I am fed up of playing along with their exhausting ridiculous pretence. It’s not even feminism now I’m just tired.

Or perhaps, dare I say it, we could have some commentary from other genders...? Or am I completely misinformed?

I do appreciate the inclusion of Scottish thinkers in the chapter on the 18th and 19th centuries but not sure it makes up for the lack of thinkers from many other, possibly more influential parts of the world. I am surprised that Lord Hailes didn’t even get a mention though- perhaps because his work was more specifically focused on Scotland instead of broader history.

“History at its highest must be interpretation, not fact-grubbing. But without a continued sponsorship of detailed research, conducted with the widest available collection of mechanical and conceptual aids, and, more important, a constant intercourse between interpretative history and primary research, history must quickly wither.”

Books about the study/nature/meaning of history are always great in the first chapter, when the infectious love of the historian for their craft as they describe what it means to the world
in the most general terms grips you and makes you feel so positive about your subject. Unfortunately, the succeeding chapters rarely live up to this introduction. But we shall see where this one goes...