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Past imperfect : facts, fictions, and fraud--American history from Bancroft and Parkman to Ambrose, Bellesiles, Ellis, and Goodwin / Peter Charles Hoffer.
LIBRA - Special E175 .H54 2004b
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- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Hoffer, Peter Charles, 1944-
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Professional ethics.
- Historiography--Political aspects.
- History.
- Historiography.
- Historiography--Social aspects.
- United States--Historiography.
- United States.
- United States--History--Philosophy.
- Philosophy.
- Historiography--Social aspects--United States--History--20th century.
- Historiography--Political aspects--United States--History--20th century.
- Historians--United States--Biography.
- Historians.
- Bellesiles, Michael A.
- Goodwin, Doris Kearns.
- Ambrose, Stephen E.
- Ellis, Joseph J.
- Professional ethics--United States--Case studies.
- Ambrose, Stephen E. <1936->.
- Déontologie professionnelle--États-Unis--Cas, Études de.
- Historiens--États-Unis--Biographies.
- Historiographie--Aspect politique--États-Unis--Histoire--20e siècle.
- Historiographie--Aspect social--États-Unis--Histoire--20e siècle.
- États-Unis--Histoire--Philosophie.
- États-Unis--Historiographie.
- Local Subjects:
- Ambrose, Stephen E. <1936->.
- Bellesiles, Michael A.
- Ellis, Joseph J.
- Goodwin, Doris Kearns.
- Déontologie professionnelle--États-Unis--Cas, Études de.
- Historiens--États-Unis--Biographies.
- Historiographie--Aspect politique--États-Unis--Histoire--20e siècle.
- Historiographie--Aspect social--États-Unis--Histoire--20e siècle.
- États-Unis--Histoire--Philosophie.
- États-Unis--Historiographie.
- Genre:
- Biographies.
- Case studies.
- History.
- Penn Provenance:
- Gotham Book Mart (former owner) (Gotham Book Mart Collection copy)
- Physical Description:
- xiv, 272 pages ; 25 cm
- Edition:
- Advance Reading Copy.
- Place of Publication:
- New York : PublicAffairs, 2004.
- Summary:
- "Woodrow Wilson, like many men of his generation, wanted to impose a version of America's founding identity: it was a land of the free and a home of the brave. But not the braves. Or the slaves. Or the disenfranchised women. So the history of Wilson's generation omitted a significant proportion of the population in favor of a perspective that was predominantly white, male, and Protestant." "That flaw would become a fissure and eventually a schism. A new history arose which, written in part by radicals and liberals, had little use for the noble and the heroic, and rankled many who wanted a celebratory rather than a critical history. To this combustible mixture of elements was added the flame of public debate. History in the 1990s was a minefield of competing passions, political views, and prejudices. It was dangerous ground, and, at the end of the decade, four of the nation's most respected and popular historians were almost destroyed on it: Michael Bellesiles, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Stephen Ambrose, and Joseph Ellis." "This is their story, set against the wider narrative of America's history. It may be, as Flaubert put it, that "Our ignorance of history makes us libel our own times." To which he could have added: falsify, plagiarize, and politicize, because that's the other story of America's history."--Jacket.
- Contents:
- I: Facts and fictions
- The rise of consensus history
- Professions of history
- The new history and its promoters
- In the eye of the storm
- II: Fraud
- Falsification: the case of Michael Bellesiles
- Plagiarism: the cases of Stephen Ambrose and Doris Kearns Goodwin
- Fabrication: the case of Joseph Ellis
- The future of the past.
- Notes:
- Includes bibliographical references (pages 241-272) and index.
- OCLC:
- 922699785
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