Use and Abuse of History

by Pieter Geyl

Historical knowledge, this noted Dutch historian declares, should be a result of free investigation and criticism. Since it deals with facts, not imagination, it cannot be cast into a predetermined mold to fit a unified pattern of arbitrary principles. "The most we can hope for," he states, "is a partial rendering, an approximation, of the real truth about the past." In this succinct analysis of the philosophy and method of history, Professor Geyl examines the prevailing concepts of history and the new "awareness of distance" from the past that was lacking in earlier historians. History, he points out, provides an elucidation of the present and its problems by showing them in perspective. This important study of the historical point of view is based on the author's Terry Lecture at Yale.

Genres: History

103 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 1955

About the author

Dutch historian and Historiographer. His main focus was Dutch history and the birth of the Dutch as a nation.

Geyl also was one of the first promoters of the "Greater-Netherlands" idea, which goal is a unification of the Netherlands and Flanders in one country.

During the second world war he was forbidden to publish and was interned for a couple of years.

Reviews

[Kaveh Rezaie · Rating 3 out of 5]

به مثال‌هایی از قرون پیش می‌پردازد که از یک واقعه‌ی تاریخی چه سوء استفاده‌هایی برای مقاصد حکومت‌ها، روشنفکرها و ... شده است. بعد به روش‌هایی که مورخان برای نوشتن آثار خود به کار برده‌اند می‌پردازد و در واقع گونه‌های “استفاده از تاریخ” را بررسی می‌کند.
در پایان هم مناظره‌ای است بین نویسنده کتاب و Toynbee یک مورخ هلندی دیگر درباره‌ی اثری که این مورخ نوشته است و اختلاف نگاه‌هایی که این دو به تاریخ دارند.

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was harder to understand than "The Pattern of the Past: Can We Determine It" by the same author as this book. I read both books twice and felt like I still learned nothing from this book the second time around. I am simply rating the book to remind myself to read it again in a few years. I do not own a copy and have to get it from the library.