The Landscape of History: How Historians Map the Past - ISBN:0195171578

The Landscape of History: How Historians Map the Past

Date: 15 April 2011, 14:56

Free register and download UseNet downloader, then you can FREE Download from UseNet.

Download without Limit " The Landscape of History: How Historians Map the Past " from UseNet for FREE!

Gaddis is a well-published Cold War historian. His PhD (1968) is from the University of Texas. He now teaches at Yale. I have seen him on C-Span a couple of times; he has a flat, slightly nasal, Southwestern accent, is highly intelligent beneath his self-deprecating and slightly awkward manner.
This book is based on a series of lectures he gave on historical method while he was George Eastman Visiting Professor at Balliol College, Oxford, 2000-2001, before 9/11.
Although I have given this book a 5-star rating, there are a few negatives. He tries too hard to make a good impression on his Oxonian audience, with cornball humor and lame analogies. He obviously feels that he has to prove that he is a civilized, cultured person and not an ignorant Texas yahoo. He is too nice to the post-modern feminist deconstructionists who have tried to destroy Western culture and rewrite history. No doubt he is in an awkward position, surrounded as he is by such people at Yale. It's hard to blame him for trying to defuse their basic hostility toward everything he represents - caucasian, male, Texan, but he could have made his points without citing such trendy vacuities as "Shakespeare in Love", "Being John Malkovich", and Tom Stoppard.
That said, this is a serious book about a serious subject, the structure of historical thought and method. He gives most of the credit for the modern understanding of the subject to Marc Bloch and E.H. Carr, whose work he cites throughout. R.G. Collingwood The Idea of History: With Lectures 1926-1928, who actually preceded both Bloch and Carr with many of the same insights, also appears frequently, but almost as an afterthought.
Gaddis believes that while it is not possible to apply the experimental scientific method to history ("history" is past, done, over with, finished, by definition), it is quite possible to use the descriptive scientific method of collecting evidence and using reason to explain it, much like a physician, paleontologist, geologist, or field naturalist does, and by doing so arrive at a fair representation of the past. The more objective and thorough the historian, the more accurate the representation. He also shows that a PERFECT reproduction of the past is impossible, and probably not even desirable.
For the details of his argument, read the book, and ignore the lame analogies.
My opinion of Gaddis is heightened by his graceful admission that he failed completely to anticipate the peaceful and almost bloodless collapse of the USSR.
Highly recommended for those with a serious interest in history.

Download Links:

Download Link (High Speed Download)

Download Link (http://www.filesonic.com/...T)

DISCLAIMER:

This site does not store The Landscape of History: How Historians Map the Past on its server. We only index and link to The Landscape of History: How Historians Map the Past provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete The Landscape of History: How Historians Map the Past if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.