The Uses and Abuses of History [Hardcover]

 

 

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Historian and best selling author, Margaret Macmillan, shares her generalizations about the study of history in this thought-provoking book, which is a must read for students of history and policy- makers everywhere.

Macmillan argues that while history cannot teach steadfast lessons per se, it provides useful analogies to help guide us in the present. She cautions, however, that the correct analogies must be chosen in order to avoid serious errors in judgment. A case in point, was the use of the appeasement analogy by the Johnson Administration in the mid-60's, when deciding to further involve the U.S. in the Vietnam War. The majority of policy- makers used the Munich analogy of 1938 to argue that communism had to be stopped in Vietnam, otherwise it would spread throughout the region, much like the appeasement of Hitler by Great Britain and France, led to his conquest of parts of Europe. As history shows, the American debacle in Vietnam proved that this was the wrong analogy because communism did not subsequently take hold everywhere in Southeast Asia. The correct analogy was the one put forward by policy advisor, George Ball, who contended that the French experience in Indochina, a decade earlier, was a far better guide. In retrospect, Ball's analogy proved to be the right one.

Analogies act as guides to help us narrow the field in times of crises. By looking at the past for similar situations, we can better choose the right course of action in the present, knowing that a certain action engendered a particular consequence. Macmillan reminds us that historical events are always unique, but similarities exist between them that are useful.

The abuses of history make up the better part of this book. Employing a wide range of historical and contemporary examples, Macmillan shows how certain governments use a selective telling of the past to further their own ends. China is a case in point when it deals with Tibet and harps on its century of humiliations. Serbia is another, when it recounts its fixation with the Battle of Kosovo. Macmillan cites many other examples, taking a negative view of ultra- nationalistic histories, which promoted one ethnic group over another. These misuses of history( history as weapon) often led to justifications for war and aggression. The Nazi use of history to justify their bald aggression in the east is put forward as a glaring example: the argument that Germany had a historic right to lands in Eastern Europe because the Teutonic Knights once roamed in those regions. Misusing history can be dangerous.

Macmillan warns that we must proceed cautiously when using the past. The study of history will clarify when it is done with due diligence and using the methods of science, based on evidence. History is more often complex ; the historian's role is to analyze and interpret that complexity to eliminate simplification, falsehood and myth. By doing so, we rub out the black and white, and see that the past is really shades of grey.

In the end, Macmillan suggests that we must approach the past with a sense of humility and patience in order to give the best possible explanation, with our starting point: What really happened? Like the individual who dwells on his or her own past to achieve understanding, historians assist us in explaining who we are as a collectivity in the present, and that explanation always changes over time because we ask different questions.

Macmillan is a thoughtful and lucid writer. The reader is reminded that this work is based on a series of lectures, and thus lacks the deep analysis of many books dealing with the study of history. The general reader will find this slim volume a delightful read.

Based on a series of University lectures from Historian Margaret MacMillan, "The Uses and Abuses of History" is a brief synopsis of the current trends in historiography, both good and bad.

In particular, MacMillan is concerned about the "abuse" of history for nationalistic purposes. The dangers of revisionism through selective emphasis and narrow interpretations which according to MacMillan have been used by demagogue leaders to further their jingoistic agendas.

On the positive side, MacMillan discusses the recent popularity of genealogies in this increasingly post-modern society that we live in. Again, however, MacMillan cautions us about the tendency to narcissism without seeing the bigger picture.

MacMillan's writing is clear and easy to follow. Overall, this is a great book for the average reader to understand a little more about historiography and the challenges the contemporary professional Historian faces.

In a well written and easily read text taken from a lecture series that examines how 'history' is created, Margaret McMillan has produced a Must Read for the citizens of the world. History, according to the author, is what the creator of it has made it to be. Sometimes this is objectively accurate but most of the time it is slanted either in the manner that the author intended it to be or is bent to either the right or the left through political interpretations. Numerous wars have been fought on imcomplete or 'cherry-picked facts', governments attain or maintain power through the exclusion of events from the past that discredit their actions and even clear minded individuals remember historical events that occured with their own lifetime through a darkly colored prism. As the closing words of this book states ".....always handle history with care."

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Published 18 months ago by Jren1

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