The Uses and Abuses of History

May 08, 2011 Paul rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: history-will-teach-us-nothing

Well, 170 pages full of good examples of the fact that history is very FRAUGHT - you can't say a thing without someone being mortally offended. Just like most family get-togethers! MM says that "professional historians have largely been abandoning the field to amateurs" - that's a bold thing to say. Does she name these phonies? No. She says that the professionals have been dragged into inscrutable theorising, in the same way the semioticians and the post-modernists dragged English literature int...more Well, 170 pages full of good examples of the fact that history is very FRAUGHT - you can't say a thing without someone being mortally offended. Just like most family get-togethers! MM says that "professional historians have largely been abandoning the field to amateurs" - that's a bold thing to say. Does she name these phonies? No. She says that the professionals have been dragged into inscrutable theorising, in the same way the semioticians and the post-modernists dragged English literature into the coded darkness of structuralism back in the swingin' 80s. "Historians long to sound like their peers in social sciences" - poor kids. (Cheer up Cinders, you shall go to the post-modernist ball!) So anyway because of this introspection some bad boys have run off with history and broken some windows with it, and picked locks with it, and frightened the horses in general. And they won't give it back. They stand there on the other side of the road and make sweeping generalisations and racist assumptions and they gather round them smaller boys and tell them nationalist myths.

As an example of this, consider the exhibit in Canada's national War Museum. There was a plaque describing the Allied carpet-bombing campaign of 1942 in which German cities and towns were targeted. The plaque said "The value and morality of the strategic bombing offensive against Germany remains bitterly contested." This was translated by the Canadian press like this : "Hey, guys, especially you veterans, did you know that the War Museum is going round saying that the bombing campaign was immoral and ineffective?" So, Airforce veterans were rounded up for comment. They were mortally offended. Historians received emails which said "The veterans have done more for our country and way of life than you ever will. Since they were there, and you were not, it stands to reason they should have the final say as to whether this plaque is fair or not."
MM remarks plaintively :

The idea that those who actually took part in great events or lived through particular times have a superior understanding to those who come later is a deeply-held yet wrong-headed one.

Absolutely.
Every nation has its myths and dynamite won't dispel them. Britain believes its Empire benevolently bestowed the pacific values of democracy and enlightenment to the benighted areas of the globe, that the natives hosanna'd our arrival and wept at our departure. Americans believe their nation was conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. (It might be so dedicated now but I can't see that it was back then.) Israelis appear to believe that the Palestinians voluntarily fled to Jordan and Lebanon in 1948. It's unfair to mention these examples because everyone's at it. Who owns history? The newspapers, and the shoutier types of politicians, would be my guess. Certainly not the historians, who have this horrible tedious habit of pointing out that it was never as simple as what you thought, it was always much more complicated, compromised and disagreeable. They're never going to get thanked for that.(less)

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Mar 07, 2010 Eric_W rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: essays-and-misc, history-historiography

This book is especially timely given the proposed changes to history textbooks by the Texas Commission on Education that would increase the visibility of Newt Gingrinch and Phyllis Schlafly at the expense of Thurgood Marshall. (This problem is not new. Frances Fitzgerald wrote a terrific book several years ago about the problem of textbooks in America Revised.)

Nations use history as a way to inspire nationalistic feeling. They do so by selectively inculcating "lessons" gleaned from the past to i...more

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Oct 03, 2009 Bill Kerwin rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is an interesting collection of lectures that discuss the way in which the knowledge of history--or the lack of it--can affect our ways of acting in the present. I particularly liked McMillan's explanation of why eyewitnesses have no particular right or advantage in historical interpretation and her exploration of the importance of particular parochial versions of history in the forming of nations and the fomenting of nationalistic attitudes. Each of her arguments is illuminated by interest...more

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Nov 15, 2011 Sesana rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: history, nonfiction

Mislead by the cover copy. Reading the book jacket would lead you to believe that this will be a sort of history of who has misquoted and misused history, and how and to what purposes. There is a bit of that, a very little bit. But it's really more of a lengthy essay on the very general whys and hows of what makes people try to use history to their own ends. There are examples, sure, but not nearly as many as I had thought there would be. It's still very well-written, and interesting, and I thou...more

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Nov 25, 2012 Shonna Froebel rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: canadian

This book is basedon the 2007 Joanna Goodman Lecture Series at the University of Western Ontario. MacMillan is a Canadian historian, who previously taught at the University of Toronto, and is now warden of St. Anthony's College at Oxford University.
This book talks about the various ways history is used: for cultural identity, for nationalism, to push a particular agenda, to predict what will happen in a future situation. She looks at how history can be a trap that we fall into when assessing a c...more

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Jul 27, 2010 Bluenose rated it 4 of 5 stars

MacMillan made the impenetrably complex peace negotiations that wrapped up World War I almost comprehensible, a great achievement, in her book Paris 1919. She writes efficiently and plainly or as plainly as possible given the whole pile o’ shit she is compelled to summarize in this brief (it’s based on a lecture series) book.

What becomes apparent is that there is very little actual history, i. e. an accurate and factual account of the past, around. Most of what people know about the past is myt...more

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Feb 04, 2010 Dave rated it 3 of 5 stars

I only read 75 pages or so of this, not because it was getting tiresome so much as the central points of her work kept repeating themselves. I really couldn't tell the difference between the chapters.

The book still gets 3 stars because her central points are good ones:

1) History is never dead, but a 'swirling whirlpool' that impacts us all the time
2 History is used and abused by all sides, conservatives, liberals, nationalists, cynics, etc.
3) 'Adult' history will be willing to see the complexity...more

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Jan 14, 2010 Anna Pearce rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

“History is about remembering the past but it is also about what we choose to forget….Some of the most difficult and protracted wars in societies around the world have been over what is being omitted or downplayed in the telling of their history – and what should be kept in. When people talk, as they frequently do, about the need for “proper” history, what they really mean is the history they want and like. School textbooks, university courses, movies, books, war memorials, art galleries, and mu...more “History is about remembering the past but it is also about what we choose to forget….Some of the most difficult and protracted wars in societies around the world have been over what is being omitted or downplayed in the telling of their history – and what should be kept in. When people talk, as they frequently do, about the need for “proper” history, what they really mean is the history they want and like. School textbooks, university courses, movies, books, war memorials, art galleries, and museums have all from time to time been caught up in debates that say as much or more about the present and its concerns as they do about ostensible subject of history.” (pg 127)

MacMillan uses a variety of examples to demonstrate how history has been used to support wars, land claims, and memorials, as well as argue against the same. She argues that this is, in part, caused by the influx of amateur historians, while professional historians argue that they shouldn’t be expected to write fascinating history because the public does not have similar expectations of scientists.

Generally, I agree with MacMillan. However, I found she used far too many examples – if one wasn’t convinced by the third, I suspect one will not be convinced by the fourth or fifth. As well, this work began as a series of lectures, and I think that accounts for repeated use and explanation of the same phrasing, such as mentioning more than once that Churchill had quipped that the Balkans had more history than they could swallow.

I do want to recommend this book because the variety of examples are far-reaching – not only American abuses of history, but Canadian, German, British, Chinese, Japanese, French, Turkish, Greek—it is a lengthy list. I suspect that everyone will read something they find offensive to have challenged (as I did). There is a lot of focus on war and how leaders have twisted history to support wars, especially in later chapters, so this may be of interest to people who are interested in anti-war activism.

On the other hand, I found the repetition irritating. I think Lies my Teacher Told Me makes the same argument, but in a more engaging (and American-centric, as it is a critique of how American schools teach history) way. I felt that too many of the examples were about war, and the last chapter, “History as Guide and Friend,” focused entirely on war. I would have appreciated more examples to do with things like land claims, residential schools, and reparation payments.

Overall, I found this book interesting. I will keep it for later reference. But I do not suspect I will reread it in its entirety.
(less)

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Jan 14, 2010 J. Pearce rated it 3 of 5 stars

“History is about remembering the past but it is also about what we choose to forget….Some of the most difficult and protracted wars in societies around the world have been over what is being omitted or downplayed in the telling of their history – and what should be kept in. When people talk, as they frequently do, about the need for “proper” history, what they really mean is the history they want and like. School textbooks, university courses, movies, books, war memorials, art galleries, and mu...more “History is about remembering the past but it is also about what we choose to forget….Some of the most difficult and protracted wars in societies around the world have been over what is being omitted or downplayed in the telling of their history – and what should be kept in. When people talk, as they frequently do, about the need for “proper” history, what they really mean is the history they want and like. School textbooks, university courses, movies, books, war memorials, art galleries, and museums have all from time to time been caught up in debates that say as much or more about the present and its concerns as they do about ostensible subject of history.” (pg 127)

MacMillan uses a variety of examples to demonstrate how history has been used to support wars, land claims, and memorials, as well as argue against the same. She argues that this is, in part, caused by the influx of amateur historians, while professional historians argue that they shouldn’t be expected to write fascinating history because the public does not have similar expectations of scientists.

Generally, I agree with MacMillan. However, I found she used far too many examples – if one wasn’t convinced by the third, I suspect one will not be convinced by the fourth or fifth. As well, this work began as a series of lectures, and I think that accounts for repeated use and explanation of the same phrasing, such as mentioning more than once that Churchill had quipped that the Balkans had more history than they could swallow.

I do want to recommend this book because the variety of examples are far-reaching – not only American abuses of history, but Canadian, German, British, Chinese, Japanese, French, Turkish, Greek—it is a lengthy list. I suspect that everyone will read something they find offensive to have challenged (as I did). There is a lot of focus on war and how leaders have twisted history to support wars, especially in later chapters, so this may be of interest to people who are interested in anti-war activism.

On the other hand, I found the repetition irritating. I think Lies my Teacher Told Me makes the same argument, but in a more engaging (and American-centric, as it is a critique of how American schools teach history) way. I felt that too many of the examples were about war, and the last chapter, “History as Guide and Friend,” focused entirely on war. I would have appreciated more examples to do with things like land claims, residential schools, and reparation payments.

Overall, I found this book interesting. I will keep it for later reference. But I do not suspect I will reread it in its entirety.
(less)

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Jul 22, 2009 Jim Coughenour rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: essaysforautodidacts

Reading this book was like sipping a cup of tepid cocoa. I picked it up with high expectations – MacMillan is the much-heralded author of Paris 1919 – and was almost immediately disappointed by a style crafted to offend and interest no one. In the spiky sub-genre of the "uses and abuses of history," this book is all soft round edges. Here's a typical sentence: "History has so often produced conflicts, but it can also help in bringing about reconciliations." (p. 136) I'm tempted to say that the b...more

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Jul 23, 2011 Malcolm rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: historiography

I have very mixed feelings about this book: part of MacMillan's case is that the recent turn to the reflexive in History, manifest mainly as a debate among historians about how we do what we do, has taken serious scholarship out of the public domain. There seems to be a clear case being made that methodological reflexivity shoud be abandoned. I may have misread her and imposed meanings that she did not intend (but I don't think so). These two points are not necessarily related – we can be more m...more I have very mixed feelings about this book: part of MacMillan's case is that the recent turn to the reflexive in History, manifest mainly as a debate among historians about how we do what we do, has taken serious scholarship out of the public domain. There seems to be a clear case being made that methodological reflexivity shoud be abandoned. I may have misread her and imposed meanings that she did not intend (but I don't think so). These two points are not necessarily related – we can be more methodologically reflexive while at the same time being actively involved in the big public debates. That is, I don't see one or the other but both.

Where I am with MacMillan is the need that as historians we actively challenge the easy, anti-intellectual, and self-serving uses of history and the past in much public sector discourse. The politicians, columnists, and other not trained in the skills of historical and evidence scepticism that is essential to history have, I think, skewed our broader sense of historical significance (think of the narrow grasp of the specifics of historical events, including basic stuff like when they happened, that we see demonstrated every day in the pub, on the bus, in Parliament, on TV news and current affiars shows). That is to say that those of us who are highly skilled in this area have left the public discourses about the past to those with a barrow to push with the effect that broader historical understandings of the past are throughly inadequate.

So, I guess I am a little flattered by the case: MacMillan almost constructs a model of the historian as hero saving the public and the past from the distortions of history imposed by lazy, sound-bite seeking politicians and ideologues: I rather like being the defender of truth.

That said, the book is accessible, argumentative, and provocative, and I hope will provide grounds for some spirited debate in my profession. There is also a six page conclusion about the importance of History (the discipline) that I will use with my undergraduates to get a debate going.(less)

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Jul 27, 2009 Michelle rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: politics-economics, history

I'm underwhelmed. MacMillan gets around to quoting Neustadt and May's classaic, Thinking in Time, but nowhere does she add anything substantial to their analysis. She mouths lots of platitudes, criticizes "amateurs" (what does she mean by that? People who lack PhD's in history? But she approvingly cites David Halberstam in the conclusion--does she know he did not have a PhD in history? It seems she just means people who don't agree with her) I'd like to know just what it is about graduate school...more

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Aug 07, 2009 Gordon rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

In the wake of the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Russians came up with the saying, "These days, we live in a country with an unpredictable past". History is always about the interpretation and re-interpretation of the past from the perspective of the needs of the present. Ever since that realization hit home with me a decade or so ago when I read E.H. Carr's great book "What is History?" it has made me carefully check the year that any work of history was written, before I decide whether...more In the wake of the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Russians came up with the saying, "These days, we live in a country with an unpredictable past". History is always about the interpretation and re-interpretation of the past from the perspective of the needs of the present. Ever since that realization hit home with me a decade or so ago when I read E.H. Carr's great book "What is History?" it has made me carefully check the year that any work of history was written, before I decide whether or not to read it. A history of WWII written in the 1950s? No, I don't think I want to read that. Too much has happened since then and brought forth new interpretations for me to limit myself to what was known about WWII in the first decade or two after it ended.

Margaret MacMillan is an excellent historian, judging by this book and the only other work of hers I have read, "Paris 1919". I think she's learned enough about history to be skeptical of it. In particular, she's skeptical of the history of war, where the aftermath of war very quickly becomes what another historian called the "aftermyth" of war. And those myths have a nasty tendency to keep fuelling new conflicts for decades and even centuries afterwards. Think about the Battle of Kosovo (1389), the Battle of the Plains of Abraham (1759) or the Crusader conquest of Jerusalem (1098). Kinda makes you wonder if we wouldn't be better off if we just forgot about these ancient wars. But then I think of Bush's Iraqi War, and I remember why we're better off if we don't make decisions in a historical vacuum.

MacMillan’s book includes a great quotation from an English writer, John Carey: “One of history’s most useful tasks is to bring home to us how keenly, honestly and painfully that past generations pursued aims that now seem to us wrong or disgraceful”. This task is unfortunately the one where history most often fails spectacularly. We assume that if our armies fought bloodily and bravely, then the cause must have been noble -- particularly if we won.

This is a well-written series of essays, originally delivered as lectures, and the simple style of the book reflects that origin. I think anyone interested in history would do well to read this book.(less)

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Apr 23, 2011 Nathan rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: franklin-library, history

Beginning with the broad thesis that history is defined not by rules but by people, Margaret MacMillan takes a brisk look at the various ways that history is co-opted for political and national agendas. That's obvious enough, I would think, to almost any amateur student of history, so I moved through this book a little impatiently. Her study is made more effective and interesting by the use of examples from both past and present history, but they don't add much beyond narrative color because Mac...more

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Jul 30, 2009 Bookmarks Magazine rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: sept-oct-2009

"In this compelling, persuasive treatise, MacMillan investigates the innumerable ways that history has been twisted, embellished, and politicized to serve one purpose or another throughout, well, history. Based on a series of lectures delivered at the University of Western Ontario, Dangerous Games details MacMillan's expert analyses and arguments, presented in her incisive, witty prose. Critics praised MacMillan's reasoning, even if they did not always agree with her proposed solutions. For exam...more

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Sep 25, 2009 Catherine rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

She talks about how history is skewered by "amateur" historians but then doesn't define a historian, other than to say they're trained to answer tough questions. She goes on to break her own rule and quote Freud and talk about psychological implications. Later she goes of public policy and political science. So is she a historian or what? And why aren't amateurs qualified to make judgments on what they find? I'm not defending amateurs, but what makes them amateurs versus specialists or the like?...more

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Sep 09, 2012 Stephen rated it 2 of 5 stars

A feeble essay in search of an argument. MacMillan tells us nothing new about the uses of history; I had encountered every idea in this book a decade ago. More importantly, her arguments in defence of history as a necessary and useful discipline are incoherent. In the few pages she devotes to justifying historical study as a way of avoiding the mistakes of the past, she cites as many examples of well-intentioned but misguided interpretations of history which led to disaster as the contrary.

Read...more

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Aug 01, 2011 Byron Wright rated it 4 of 5 stars

In the arrogance of my youth, I thought only the present mattered. As I grow older I see the relevance of that past is everyday life. This book provides a bit of a framework for understanding history. It is well written, easy to read, and has interesting examples.

Main points of this book is that history can be an important guide to our present and future. However, history is often misapropriated and taken out of context by those trying to influence us. So, the hard part is separating the history...more

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Jun 23, 2012 Ben rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: history

While I did enjoy this book and am glad that I read it, it seems more to me more like a Ph.D. student's cop-out of a dissertation than a serious monograph by a respected historian. The thesis of the book is that history has been used throughout... history... in ways that one might charitably characterize as disingenuous at best in order to support a certain kind of political action, or abusive régime, or any really anything of the like. Anyone who is unaware of this fact is probably still too bu...more

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Jan 11, 2010 Edward rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The author's perspective is clear, as given in the introduction, “validation, whether of group demands or for justification, almost always comes from using the past.” Everyone uses the past; whether they use it wisely or foolishly is the topic of this book.

A key comment that she makes is that “history should not be written to make the present generation feel good but to remind us that human affairs are complicated.” Most of the book is devoted to showing how history IS usually written to make th...more

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Apr 06, 2012 Meg - A Bookish Affair rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012, politics-history, non-fiction

This book fell sort of flat for me. It's been said that 'history is written by the victors' and MacMillan, a noted historian, believes this is true (as do I). MacMillan's premise is that what we understand to be our history is really subjective. Yes, there are facts in history but there is always story and that is the part that becomes subjective. What facts are left in? What facts are left out? What's glossed over? What's emphasized? I think this is something that historians struggle with a lot...more

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Aug 13, 2009 James Murphy rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

My idea has always been that there's a clear, shining ingot of historical truth about any event and that our histories are to one degree or another corruptions of that truth. MacMillan doesn't say that. However, her book goes a long way toward explaining the different ways history can be perceived, how history is bent toward a particular viewpoint, or misunderstood, or ignored, or even blatantly fabricated. One of MacMillan`s great themes is that history means what we want it to mean. We--nation...more

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Dec 27, 2009 Kate rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: history

If the study of history does nothing more than teach us humility, skepticism, and awareness of ourselves, then it has done something useful. We must continue to examine our own assumptions and those of others and ask, where's the evidence? Or, is there another explanation? We should be wary of grand claims in history's name or those who claim to have uncovered the truth once and for all. In the end, my only advice is to use it, enjoy it, but always handle history with care. - MacMillan

An excell...more

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Apr 10, 2013 Dan Downing rated it 5 of 5 stars

The greatest homage I can pay a book is to re-read it. I first read this about a year ago, and have several 3x5 cards on my desk with excerpts. I thought it deserved another go round.
MacMillan fills her prose with such detail that one does not skim through: each sentence, each paragraph, needs to be carefully read and savored. At 172 pages, this will not gobble up weeks of reading time, although another author could well have padded an additional 400 pages to no increase in value.
Of especial int...more

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Dec 19, 2011 Hadrian rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: essays, history, nonfiction

A brief discourse on how history is always changing over time, how it can never achieve the analytical precision of science, and how all nations and many non-national groups can shift and alter history to produce narratives, and change it to their favor.

Particularly relevant reading this on the day Kim Jong-Il died, as he is one of the people perhaps most guilty of changing history to his ends.

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Nov 21, 2009 Marisol rated it 4 of 5 stars

This was an interesting read about how and even why (in some cases) history is written or "changed" to fit with the author's point of view. Ms MacMillan believes that history should be left to the historians to write, because, she says, they ask more questions and are less likely to be one-sided. She has some interesting examples of how history is "changed" to fit with a political agenda.

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Aug 20, 2009 .50spiderbite Higgins rated it 4 of 5 stars

MacMillan's book is more a pamphlet than anything else, and while it touches on nearly a million little fascinating points and makes clear that history as a thing is constantly reinterpreted and manipulated for the benefit of whom ever is in power, there's no citations.

At the end of the book, there is an extensive list of "futher reading," all of which I'm going to have to purchase now, and I really would have liked this book to be more extensive.

At the end of the day it's one of those books t...more

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Jan 20, 2013 Erika Stewart rated it 4 of 5 stars

I really really liked this book, but then again I have a history degree.
I would say very interesting to read for anyone as it examines the way that we change history for popular culture and the way we remember people.
The only reason I didn't give it five starts is because it is fairly academic, and while there is nothing wrong with that it is heavier than fun reading.

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Dec 13, 2009 Jeffrey Taylor rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Well worth the read just to consider the ulterior uses for history. It was disappointing due to what I though of as a lack of organization. At time I felt that I was reading an account of a series of discussions that may have taken place between history graduate students at a local beer hall. Still, beer halls can be a place to exchange significant ideas.

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Mar 03, 2013 Meera rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book was developed from a lecture series - has a conversational tone and is very engaging. One chapter is titled "Who owns the past?" - something all Canadians should be asking themselves in my humble opinion - may start a conversation based on fact rather than what has become the norm.... Also liked MacMillan's Nixon in China.

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