Arnold's lucid and slender book is worthy of praise for its concision and accessible writing style. The clear writing enables non-specialists to entertain some of the central questions in Historiography and Philosophy of History. His use of historical examples to illustrate important points is skillful and engaging. Some of these examples include a religiously motivated medieval murder at the time of the inquisition; the story of one man who lived through both the English Civil War and the religious conflicts in the early Massachusetts Colony then governed by John Winthrop; a case of cat-killing in 17C France with an accompanying discussion of the history of attitudes towards cats; and the case of Sojourner Truth's famous "Ain't I a Woman?" speech-- which survives in 2 very different records--neither of which is the same as what she said in the speech. Despite the relatively jargon-free writing, the author manages to articulate many of the central questions, problems and challenges facing contemporary historians who try to make sense of their craft. If he offers more questions than definitive answers, that is in keeping with his tendency to debunk those historians and philosophers who have claimed to have final answers to extremely complex questions. If the book has a thesis at all, it is probably that one should be extremely cautious about the use of historical constructs, generalizations and abstractions that are too often confused with the past itself. An obvious example is periodization. Students often learn about the Renaissance, Middle Ages and Enlightenment periods as though these are realities that existed in the past. But no one in, say, the year 900 CE thought that they lived in "the middle ages" while those who claimed to be part of "the" Enlightenment" often had very different conceptions of just what constituted Enlightenment.
Though it is pretty clear that periods and epochs are historical constructs often made by historians long after the events in question, it is far from clear that there is "never" a single cause for a historical event, that "most if not all" history consists in unintended consequences of past actions, that historians cannot ever claim to have an objectively true understanding of the past as it "really" was, that there is no basic human nature shared by all, that standards of right and wrong (as when historians say that a political leader made the "right" or "wrong" decision) are relative to time and place, and that there is no Truth in history but only partly accurate interpretations molded into what Arnold calls "True Stories." These are some of the main claims he makes in a soft-selling and thought provoking way. He doesn't seem dogmatic about his views, often stating them in the 1st person as his own preferences.
While I do not agree with some of the claims Arnold makes, I nevertheless found much food for thought throughout. Perhaps the only exception is the last chapter on truth and meaning in history. There Arnold observes a clear distinction between accurate and inaccurate records of past events while denying the corollary that accurate records of events imply truth, while inaccurate records cannot be historically true in any conventional sense of the term. He writes, "dispensing with 'Truth' does not mean dispensing with accuracy." But to know that an account is accurate requires that you know it is true. I don't see how one can decouple the interrelated ideas of accuracy and truth. Simply put, if a record of the "Ain't I a Woman?" speech is grossly inaccurate, then it is false and not true historically. The author tries, I think vainly, to wiggle around this logic when he maintains that a poetically reworked version of the speech is just as true as an earlier and more faithful recording of it since the embellished version "may capture something very different about the woman [who made the speech], how she acted and was perceived by those who knew her." That impressionistic notion of truth is impossible to ascertain, and leaves us on a slippery slope conflating artful descriptions with truths.
But my disagreements are less important than the fact that this quick read got me to sift through some of my own beliefs and views on a variety of other matters, and I am not at all new to the philosophy of history. Despite some less than convincing arguments, the book as a whole stimulates independent, critical thinking, and its tone respects the readers' judgments rather than preaching any particular gospel. Recommended.
ISBN-13:
978-0192853523
ISBN-10:
019285352X
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