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After the fact: The art of historical detection

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In each of its editions, After the Fact remains one of my favorite books. The first time I read the book, I began the Introduction (often a daunting task) and read the authors' account of using the tree rings on a recently cut-down tree as a device for recalling local history, and I was hooked! I have read each of the editions (except the recently published hardback) and think they are great. Davidson and Lytle take people and/or events in United States history and write chapters on the events demonstrating methods and techniques used in studying and writing history. This sounds heavy and boring -- but it isn't. The reality is an engrossing look at events -- some well-known, others almost unknown -- that reminds us that good history requires a good narrative and that historians have to use many different methods and techniques to get the information they need to write their narratives. The chapters combine one incident and one aspect of how historians go about doing history. The chapter on the Salem witch trials tells a good story while introducing the reader painlessly to the historical concepts of demographics, multiple causation, community dynamics, and the status of women in 17th century New England. It also gives several reasons the young accusers may have had physical convulsions. Psychohistory is the method explored in the chapter on John Brown and leads the reader to think about the whole concept of madness or insanity in our legal system and what constitutes sanity. The Prologue is one of my favorite chapters, taking a relatively unknown diplomat from the Revolutionary period, Silas Deane, and using the circumstances of his death to discuss the pivotal hisorical issue of evidence and how difficult it is to determine which pieces of evidence are important. A theme running through these chapters and many of the others is how much we don't know about historical events and how even the best history is open to various interpretations. It reminds me why many historians also like to read mysteries and detective fiction. Since the first edition was published, I have used After the Fact in classes that I teach on the college level. My students love it! Even students who don't find history very interesting usually enjoy at least parts of After the Fact. They find it more interesting than they expect a history text book to be. So do I. I couldn't even guess how many times I've read the book, and each time I'm struck by how fresh and interesting most of it remains. Above all else, it is history written the way history should be written.

After the Fact is a fantastic introduction to the field of historiography. It is a very easy read as well as providing concrete examples of how writing history is a selective act, dealing with different kinds of evidence, and the general practices and problems of historical methods. I would recommend using this book in an introductory history course because of its understandability. It would serve as a good introduction to beginning historians to the problems and philosophical concerns of their field.

After the Fact is a book that every serious historian should have in their library. Davidson and Lytle do a great job elucidating the various aspects of exploring the conundrum of history. From the very basic task of exploring the veracity of the Declaration of Independence to the monumental task of discovering the reasons why history was made in a certain context. Every chapter is interesting and captivating, and a "must read" to supplement the history seminar. If you do not have this book already, I strongly suggest purchasing it.

After the Fact is usually read by college history majors. That is surely something I am not. As a future economics/English major heading off to Yale next fall, I found this book to be nonetheless very lucid for something so lauded for its groundbreaking insights and explainations. It has been cited by such "pop" historians as James W. Loewen, author of Lies My Teacher Told Me. And this is for a good reason. Through highly entertaining tales of American history, historians Davidson and Lytle uncover some of the most common myths that currently surround the process of creating history. The book illuminates one's understanding of American history while enlightening one to the underlying methods of historians. For a textbook, it is not "textbookish" at all. I would even recommend it for pleasure reading.

Anyone interested in history would enjoy this book, and learn from it, too. History is the story we tell about the past, and how the story is told is an art. The best historical art expresses truth and insight, and helps us to understand ourselves and others. When one considers that virtually all of our knowledge and perceptions, including scientific, are based on the stories we hear and believe, the art of history gains respect. The authors of After the Fact offer fifteen chapters on various historical topics, not so much for the purpose of writing history as of thinking about history. The authors' opinions about the topics are therefore not so important, and it really doesn't matter whether you agree with them, though I found all of them quite interesting and insightful. This book complements standard history books and is a great change of pace.

For twenty years, I've been recommending to (i.e., forcing on) new history grad students that they read this marvelous book to get an idea what the profession of history is really about. Because it's not just gathering the "facts" and presenting them as "what really happened." That's very misleading, regardless of what your 6th Grade teacher told you. As the authors demonstrate in the very first chapter, history is a transitive verb. It's "the act of selecting, analyzing, and writing about the past." And they prove it through fourteen closely reasoned, carefully written chapters, each re-examining a historical event or circumstance. Some are major, like a documentary analysis of Jefferson's methodology in writing the Declaration of Independence, or how the decision was arrived at to drop the Bomb on Hiroshima. Others are much more minor, small gems of investigation, especially the truth of the mysterious death of failed American diplomat Silas Deane in 1789. They examine the "great man" theory of history in the light of the career of Huey Long, the "Kingfish," and the counterposed "grand theory" as elucidated by Frederick Jackson Turner. (And attitudes about Turner among historians have changed yet again since this book was published.) They investigate whether John Brown, an unargued terrorist by our standards but a hero to Norhern opponents of slavery in the 1850s, was a psychopath. Other chapters discuss the Sacco-Vanzetti case, the roles of social critics and muckrackers in making or changing public policy, the Salem witch trials, the aftermath of Watergate, the Federal Writers' Project's ex-slave narratives (collected in the 1930s and heavily reinterpreted in the 1970s), and the tradition of the "noble savage." It's gone through several editions and a second volume has been added to include new investigative methods and case studies on later events, but it really doesn't matter. You'll learn the basics just as well from the original book.

Readers should know my husband is one of the two authors. They should also know that my women's book club read it. None of us are historians or even regular readers of history. We all found ourselves engaged by the insights into events we thought we knew something about. Our favorite chapter was the revised look at the Salem witch trials. We were amazed how much historical scholarship has shifted over the past years. We also prefer the nw chapter on the Dust Bowl to the previous Huey Long chapter. Most of us had read The Grapes of Wrath, but never though much about its relationship to the real stories of the great depression. And all of us lived through Watergate. We did not realize until we read the new chapter on the White House tapes just how bazaar Richard Nixon was. If you like history, you'll love this book.

My teacher specifically asked us to buy this book for us to use in class discussions and to learn what the essence of history is.

I enjoy reading the assignments, which I don't usually with assigned books. I would highly recommend it for any history buff!

I found this book to be quite interesting. I am glad I purchased this. In regards to price, I'm glad I got it at a discounted price because the official price was insane.

I cannot say more than this. This is the best history textbook I have ever read. This is an especially useful tool for those entering the field of history education at any level.