The Uses and Abuses of History
- Publisher
- Penguin Group Canada
- Initial publish date
- Apr 2008
- Category
- General
-
Hardback
- ISBN
- 9780670066803
- Publish Date
- Apr 2008
- List Price
- $30
-
Paperback / softback
- ISBN
- 9780143054788
- Publish Date
- Mar 2009
- List Price
- $16.00
Classroom Resources
Where to buy it
Description
History is useful when it is used properly: to understand why we and those we must deal with think and react in certain ways. It can offer examples to inform our decisions and guesses about the consequences of our actions. But we should be wary of looking to history for dogmatic lessons.We should distrust those who abuse history when they call on it to justify unreasonable claims to land, for example, or restitution. MacMillan illustrates how dangerous history can be in the hands of nationalistic or religious or ethnic leaders who use it to foster a sense of grievance and a desire for revenge.
About the author
MARGARET MacMILLAN is the renowned author of Women Of The Raj, Stephen Leacock (Extraordinary Canadians series), and the international bestsellers Nixon In China and Paris 1919: Six Months That Changed the World, which won the 2003 Governor General’s Award and the 2002 Samuel Johnson Prize. She is also the author of The Uses and Abuses of History. The past provost of Trinity College at the University of Toronto, she is now the warden of St. Antony’s College at Oxford University.
