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24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Gordon Wood on the Art of American History, May 21, 2008
This review is from: The Purpose of the Past: Reflections on the Uses of History (Hardcover)
I found this to be just an extremely valuable collection of essays by Gordon S. Wood, one of our leading historians of the colonial and early national period (see his "The Creation of the American Republic" among other studies), consisting of 21 of his review essays. These essays originally appeared in the New York Review of Books, the New Republic, or the Atlantic between 1981-2007. The book's impact derives from several considerations. First, it is Wood who is writing the reviews, with tempered judgment (for the most part) and unimpeachable command of the material. Second, what Wood is up to is to illustrate trends or approaches in writing American history, as demonstrated in the various books under review.
Some of the approaches or "trends" that Wood discusses, sometimes quite critically, include influence in intellectual history; writing history from the perspective of "contemporary consciousness"; is there still a place for good narrative history?; is the "new historicism" correct that everything is relative?; can history be written as fiction (Schama's "Dead Certainties" the subject of review); microhistory; multicultural history; comparative history; postmodern history; history and myth; and "presentism." His authors include Gary Wills; Joyce Appleby; Elkin & McKitrick; Gary Nash; Jon Butler; Jill Lapore; Pauline Maier and many others. If Wood had written a straight substantive article on trends in history, the reader's eyes might become glazed over. But the device of introducing and discussing (and sometimes deconstructing) each approach within the framework of reviewing a book manifesting that approach, keeps things much more interesting and lively than one might expect. Wood also has included a useful introductory essay and an index. So the book is a fun way to learn an awful lot about the writing of American history in this country during the last quarter century or so.
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18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A very worthy read, May 4, 2008
This review is from: The Purpose of the Past: Reflections on the Uses of History (Hardcover)
This book is a compilation of Gordon Wood's book reviews ranging from 1981 to 2007. They are arranged with chapter titles describing how each applies as a larger narrative on the contemporary state of the field of history. Examples of titles are "Microhistory" and "Anachronism in History".
The book is mostly a place for Wood to display his criticisms for postmodern historical methods. While it may seem like doing this by compiling book reviews is an odd way of doing so, the result is successful in displaying many of Wood's issues. Wood is a brutal reviewer, and there are no books that receive what could be considered "praise" while there are several that he handles ruthlessly. He is also a fairly accessible writer that any educated person should be able to understand, especially with these reviews which were written for general readers in the first place.
So what are Wood's specific views? The overall aura of this book is not necessarily that he despises all newer postmodern, multicultural ways of looking at history, but rather he is quite annoyed that they are completely taking over history. For instance, he is clearly frustrated that larger narratives are no longer accepted in the field of history, as everything has turned into microhistories. Microhistories are basically using individual stories of common people to help make inferences from the past. Wood is also frustrated with extreme multicultural history, which constantly distorts his beloved American Revolution topic that he has dedicated much of his life to. These are perhaps the most entertaining and well-argued reviews of the bunch. He seems to enjoy having a venue to bash the historians who have placed a huge meaning of the U.S. Constitution on its failure to free slaves. Wood finds this as a particularly significant and harmful anachronism.
This book might be best read by those who do not agree with him. Perhaps the Howard Zinn lover (or other stubbornly multiculturalist historians) may realize that Zinn is precisely the type of historian that America needs to be warned against. As Wood states "I suppose the most flagrant examples of present-mindedness in history writing come from trying to inject politics into history books. I am reminded of Rebecca West's wise observation that when politics comes in the door, the truth flies out the window."
Of course, however, Wood seems to find some good in the new history writing, he just believes it should be more balanced. Although that may be lost by the fact that he has very little positive things to say in most of his reviews. Perhaps the pessimism found all over the book is one of its largest drawbacks. The other significant drawback I see in this book is that some of his reviews just don't really fit very well with what their purpose is supposed to be. Ironically enough, while this entire book is mostly a criticism of multicultural and postmodern history, the chapters titled "Multicultural History" and "Postmodern History" say very little. Other reviews end up being better examples at what he is trying to say.
Most of his reviews naturally cover, as I said, the American Revolution, so if you want more of Wood on the Revolution, this is a great book. Each chapter also features a short afterword provided by Wood. He often has interesting stories to tell about the reactions different authors had of their reviews. However, most of these afterwords are very short and it would have been nicer for include more in them.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Wood's uneasiness with modern historical theory, September 15, 2008
This review is from: The Purpose of the Past: Reflections on the Uses of History (Hardcover)
Gordon Wood's _The Purpose of the Past_ is a collection of essays, actually book reviews, published over a period of 25 years. Wood has chosen from among his reviews those that relate specifically to the underlying theory and purpose (and possibility) of history research and writing. As such, the book is a good window into Wood's views on the current state of the discipline throughout the 1980's, 1990's, and 2000's. I would characterize the overall content and tone as Wood's uneasy relationship with the postmodern trend in historical writing that mirrors similar (but earlier) trends in other disciplines such as literary theory and architecture.
Wood's tone modulates throughout the three decades represented by these essays from rather sharp criticism of postmodern theories leaking into the historical disciplines to grudging acceptance of some of the supposed benefits of a multicultural, postmodern viewpoint of history. To his credit he remains a staunch antagonist to the most extreme ideas arising from postmodernism, particularly that all history is subjective and is essentially fiction because of the bias of the writer. Postmodernism identifies this concern and proceeds to fully embrace it, resulting in work that is indistinguishable from fiction, and boldly pronounces itself so. Wood is clearly unhappy with this trend and repeatedly defends the traditional historical methods designed to get as close as possible to, and treat as objectively as possible, past events. He recognizes it's impossible to be completely objective, but holds up objectivity as a goal to be striven for, rather than an antiquated artifact to be scorned. He does, however, come to ultimately make a sort of uneasy peace with the milder forms of postmodernism, particularly the "balkanization" of historical writing into narrower and narrower disciplines, although he does decry the worst forms of this.
I think of this book as a paean to the past when grandiose, narrative history of "great men" and "great events" was the status quo of historical writing, a past whose time has been superceded by multiculturalism and emphasis on the "social" nature of history. Wood's grudging acceptance of some of the current trends in historical writing reflects changes to his own philosophy over the three decades covered in the book.
Wood's writing style is clear and concise, and some of his criticisms are fairly devastating, so it's a fun read in that respect. The chapters are individual reviews and so don't run too long; maybe 10-15 pages each on average. It's well suited for reading a chapter each day or so without the need to remember a narrative flow through the entire book. But there is an overall theme as described above and the work is a unitary whole. I enjoyed the read and while my own perspective is much less accommodating to prevelance of postmodern thought in historical disciplines, it's an excellent window into an imporant figure in the field and his own evolving perspective over time. Recommended.
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