Telling the Truth about History (Norton Paperback) - Softcover

"It is hard to think of three historians better equipped to deal with threats to the discipline of history ... [which] is being fundamentally challenged in new ways." -- Gordon S. Wood "A wise and moderate book. The authors, all distinguished historians ... ,speak with confidence about the value of both the historian's traditional craft and modern criticism of it. Their sane and readable discussion should give hope to [those] who ... believe in the possibility-even the pleasure-of writing history." -- Caroline Walker Bynum "A confident, breezy account of the historical profession's encounters with post-modernism and multiculturalism." -- David A. Hollinger

This text examines the problem of historical truth. Seeking the roots of contemporary historical study in the Enlightenment, the authors argue that a model of historical research, based on neutrality and objectivity, served historians well until World War II. After that post-modernism suggested history could not reveal the truth about the past and the rise of social history produced a great amount of statistics which effectively swamped the search for historical truth. Accepting that much of history teaching has been flawed, the authors nevertheless argue for an affirmation of historical knowledge against the doubts of the sceptics and the relativists, guiding the reader through the complex areas of political correctness and multiculturalism.