The ever-changing past : why all history is revisionist history / James M. Banner, Jr.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Banner, James M., Jr., 1935- author.

Contributor:

Charles Wendell David Library Fund.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Historiography.

Historians.

Physical Description:

xi, 284 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

New Haven : Yale University Press, [2021]

Summary:

History is not, and has never been, inert, certain, merely factual, and beyond reinterpretation. Taking readers from Thucydides to the origin of the French Revolution to the Civil War and beyond, James M. Banner, Jr.. explores what historians do and why they do it. Banner shows why historical knowledge is unlikely ever to be unchanging, why history as a branch of knowledge is always a search for meaning and a constant source of argument, and why history is so essential to individuals' awareness of their location in the world and to every group and nation's sense of identity and destiny. He explains why all historians are revisionists while they seek to more fully understand the past, and how they always bring their distinct minds, dispositions, perspectives, and purposes to bear on the subjects they study.

Contents:

Machine generated contents note: One. Revisions Without End: The Origins of the American Civil War

Two. The Ancient Origins of Revisionist History

Three. Revisionist History in the Modern Era

Four. Varieties of Revisionist History

Five. Some Fruits of Revisionist History

Six. History and Objectivity.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Charles Wendell David Library Fund.

ISBN:

9780300238457

0300238452

OCLC:

1184238842