Customer Reviews

More Than Dates and Dead People: Recovering a Christian View of History

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4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This is my favorite introduction to the study of history. This concise book is required summer reading for my homeschool academy humanities students. It is well written - easily digestible & interesting, generously seasoned with humor. The first sentence is an immediate hook. I cannot recommend this excellent book highly enough.

I hated history in school, but now I understand why this was so! History was taught to me from the evolutionary, secular humanist mindset, and thus it could have no purpose, plan or meaning. I thoroughly enjoy history now, because I have been freed to see that all history, even our own seemingly inconsequential little lives, can have enormous influence.

Even if you are not Christian, Mr. Mansfield's method of dissecting history is spot on: you only need to understand 5 arenas as you examine the people and times of the past: 1) religion; 2) culture; 3) Law; 4) education; and 5) art.

What is religion? It is "ultimate concern." It is that to which men willingly give their lives, what occupies their thoughts, their money and their time. No society or individual is free from it, including Richard Dawkins.

What is culture? According to Mansfield, culture is "religion externalized." Differences between cultures are simply the expression of ultimate concerns that permeate a society. Understanding different cultures requires looking at the next three aspects (law, education and art).

What is law? It is a culture's attempt to set standards of moral behavior, to deal with matters of truth, fairness, and justice. I must quote Mansfield here: "You will sometimes hear people say, 'You can't legislate morality.' This isn't true, though. In fact, morality is all you can legislate. For example, why don't we have laws that require pink flowers in all second-story windows boxes? These laws sound silly, don't they? And the reason they sound silly is that they have nothing to do with morality, with right and wrong. That's why we have laws that deal with murder, stealing, personal assault, and discrimination. These are issues of truth, fairness - what is right. They are issues of religious truth [ultimate concern]."

"This also explains why laws vary so widely between countries of the world. In some countries with an Islamic heritage, it is permissible to chop off the hand of a thief. This is because of the teaching of the Koran. In some countries, a woman has no rights to speak of, and this is, again, because of the religious system that shapes the legal system....All of these laws sound strange to us because we have a different religious system behind our laws and a different understanding of what is true, what is right, and what is fair."

What is education? It is the transmission of ultimate concern from one generation to the next.

What is art? Religion or "ultimate concern" symbolized (in art, music, film, literature, etc.). Art communicates the hopes, dreams and beliefs of a people.

Isn't that a handy way to categorize history? Truly it is "more than dates and dead people!"

Mansfield gives a helpful list of resources at the end of his book to help the reader get started. He includes books, magazines, films, organizations, etc.

Excellent little book. Very engaging.

Only a fool would believe the legitimacy of this book. I thought we moved beyond the age of predetermination. I'm studying this book right now in historiography, and its a case-study on how NOT to write history. There are so many errors and fallacies in this book it makes me want to first puke, and then feel sorry for those who read this and think it has any historical value. Case in point, he makes up some story about Columbus's grandfather imaging primitive people to the west of Europe that need to be proselytized; and that was the motivation of Columbus voyaging to the Americas.

First of all, Columbus didn't know the Americas existed. He was trying to find a western route to India, hence naming the islanders of what became Hispanola "indians." Second, Columbus died BELIEVING he had reached India as nobody had reached the Pacific ocean from a western route prior to his death. There are far too many examples of poor scholarship in here to list o a review, but come on! The guy idolizes Disney's "historical" movies. Disney is one of the greatest propagators of false history to ever exist.

Please, don't read this book. History is too beautiful a subject to have your brain warped by this garbage.

This ia a lightwieght book about a sometimes heavy wieght subject. It takes a novice at history and helps put it in a light that makes it relevant for study. This book would be very good for those who hate to study history. For those who already love history, it is a great example of looking at it in a different way.

It got only 4 stars because it was too short. I wanted more however, the author gave the reader the tools to do it on their own.

A Must Read for all History Buffs

I am quite the history buff, however, setting that aside I am very pleased with this purchase. I liked the book so much I made it required reading for my kids. We can never know to much about history, as it is how we base the decisions we make for the future. Without looking to the past, how can we expect not to repeat failures. This isn't a comprehensive history book, but one that is geared to identifying the massive importance of being at least a mid-level student of history. You will not regret the purchase.

If you are alive and realize your life is more than just dates, then it only follows that your personal history is foremost a story and not a set of disconnected facts. Accepting this axiomatically, I nevertheless ordered this (and another) book on a personal recommendation. I'm sorry I did. Both books contained such weak scholarship that I was ashamed for their authors and publishers. (I posted a separate review for the other book).

If you are looking for a book that makes history come alive I would first recommend Eggleston's "A History of the United States and Its People", and next Carey's "Eyewitness to History". After that it would be a toss-up between any of the following: "A History of Private Life", "Guns, Germs and Steel", "Liberal Fascism", "The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History", "A Patriot's History of the United States", "A Little History of the World" or any of 100 other great books.

The substantive advice I would give is to steer clear of history textbooks. All tend to be: 1) written too quickly, 2) constantly revised to include new facts (making them ever more disconnected instead of improving their readability), 3) financial fat cows (intended to make money for publishers, colleges and authors), and finally 4) tailored to both facilitate classroom quizzes and examinations, and to address specific content on standardized tests (the only thing more suspect than teaching to the test is writing to it).

This book is in no danger of being confused with a textbook (though I bet it's on somebody's supplemtals list), it is also not going to excite anyone about this subject nearly so well as the other titles I've listed.

Provocative historical interpretation, albeit with a theological bias. Even more focus on the Reformation as an historical turning-point would strengthen it.