Showing titles in Historiography

Our age is obsessed by the idea of conspiracy. We see it everywhere---from Pearl Harbor to 9/11, from the assassination of Kennedy to the death of Diana. In this age of terrorism we live in, the role of conspiracy is a serious one---one that can fuel radical or fringe elements to violence. For award-winning journalist David Aaronovitch, there came a time when he started to see a pattern among these inflammatory theories.

Ask children where food comes from, and they’ll probably answer: “the supermarket.” Ask most adults, and their replies may not be much different. Where our foods are raised and what happens to them between farm and supermarket shelf have become mysteries. How did we become so disconnected from the sources of our breads, beef, cheeses, cereal, apples, and countless other foods that nourish us every day?

In this bold and brilliantly argued book, acclaimed author and talk-radio host Michael Medved zeroes in on 10 of the biggest fallacies that millions of Americans believe about our country - in spite of incontrovertible facts to the contrary. In The 10 Big Lies About America, Medved pinpoints the most pernicious pieces of America-bashing disinformation that pollute current debates about the economy, race, religion in politics, the Iraq war, and other contentious issues.

The 12 essays in Wars within a War explore the internal stresses that posed serious challenges to the viability of the opposing sides in the Civil War as well as some of the ways in which wartime disputes and cultural fissures carried over into the postwar years and beyond.Comprised of contributions from leading scholars, this volume extends the discussion of controversies far past the death of the Confederacy in the spring of 1865.

Forged during the tumultuous but triumphant postwar years when America came of age as a world power, The Irony of American History is more relevant now than ever before. Cited by politicians as diverse as Hillary Clinton and John McCain, Niebuhr's masterpiece on the incongruity between personal ideals and political reality is both an indictment of American moral complacency and a warning against the arrogance of virtue.

Master historian Barbara W. Tuchman looks at history in a unique way and draws lessons from what she sees. This accessible introduction to the subject of history offers striking insights into America's past and present, trenchant observations on the international scene, and thoughtful pieces on the historian's role. Here is a splendid body of work, the story of a lifetime spent "practicing history".

Ranging with dazzling expertise through anthropology, history, and literature, Wright reconfigures our self-perception, arguing that the "essence" of America can be traced to the foundations of our history--literally to the collision of worlds that began in 1492, as one civilization subsumed another--and exploring how these currents continue to shape our world.

Denying History takes a bold and in-depth look at those who say the Holocaust never happened and explores the motivations behind such claims. While most commentators have dismissed the Holocaust deniers as antisemitic neo-Nazi thugs who do not deserve a response, historians Michael Shermer and Alex Grobman have immersed themselves in the minds and culture of these Holocaust "revisionists." In the process, they show how we can be certain that the Holocaust happened.

In 1963, Samuel Eliot Morison, long one of our most distinguished historians, was awarded the first Balzan Prize in History, a prize that rivals the Nobel Prize in splendor and munificence. To receive the award, Admiral Morison had to go to Rome, where he delivered an address, "The Experiences and Principles of an Historian." This book includes the address he gave, as well a fascinating account of the award ceremonies, of which he was a central figure.

The accelerating changes of the past generation have been accompanied by a similarly accelerated amnesia. The 20th century has become "history" at an unprecedented rate. The world of 2007 was so utterly unlike that of even 1987, much less any earlier time, that we have lost touch with our immediate past even before we have begun to make sense of it - and the results are proving calamitous.

History is to society what memory is to the individual. Without it, we don't know who we are and we can't make wise decisions about our future. But while the nature of memory is constant, the nature of history has changed radically over the past 40 years. Historian Gordon Wood examines the sea change in his field through consideration of some of its most important historians and their works.

In this groundbreaking new work, Mark Booth embarks on an enthralling intellectual tour of our world's secret histories. Starting from a dangerous premise - that everything we've been taught about our world's past is corrupted, and that the stories put forward by the various cults and mystery schools throughout history are true - Booth produces nothing short of an alternate history of the past 3,000 years.

Ob Püppchen oder Powerfrau: Frauen wissen scheinbar nicht so recht, was sie eigentlich wollen. Wenn dann auch noch Männer mitreden, wird es wirklich kompliziert. So tobt er täglich, der Kampf der Geschlechter, und das seit über 100 Jahren. Ob in Werbung, Diskussionen, Hits und Filmen, Dorothee Meyer-Kahrweg und Hans Sarkowicz sind überall fündig geworden und haben die besten Originalaufnahmen der letzten Jahrzehnte zu einer so einzigartigen wie urkomischen Sammlung vereint.

Famous for its unflagging narrative power, fine organization, and irresistibly persuasive arguments, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire has earned a permanent place of honor in historical literature. Gibbon's elegantly detached erudition is seasoned with an ironic wit, and remarkably little of his work is outdated.

Love-Parade und Teletubbies, "Blühende Landschaften" und Korruption, Mauerschützenprozesse und "Ostalgie-Welle". Das waren die 90er Jahre...

Friedensdemo und Neutronenbombe, Waldsterben, die Katastrophe von Tschernobyl und die Gründung der Grünen. Die 80er Jahre sind gezeichnet von Harmoniesucht und Desillusion zugleich. Es ist die Zeit der Existenzängste, der Bedrohung des Friedens durch die Bombe, aber auch der Mobilisierung der Bevölkerung und der Hoffnung auf Perestroika und Glasnost. Demos und Friedensmärsche gehören beinahe zum Alltag der Republik, man redet mit, und schließlich hört man einen Ruf besonders laut: "Wir sind das Volk!" Die Mauer fällt...

RAF, Energiekrise, Schlagerparade, Willy Brandts Kniefall in Warschau. In den 70er Jahren hatte der uneingeschränkte Konsum ein Ende, der Terrorismus wütete, Utopien wurden zerstört. Die heile Welt fand sich in Schlagern wieder, in Blumendekor und Schlaghosen. Und gleichzeitig beginnt in dieser Zeit die Entwicklung zu einem modernen Europa.

Beatlemania, Studentenunruhen, die erste Mondlandung. Eines kann man den 60er Jahren nicht nachsagen: dass Stillstand geherrscht hätte. Es waren die aufregendsten Jahre der Nachkriegszeit: Kalter Krieg zwischen Ost und West, Mauerbau zwischen BRD und DDR...

Goggo-Mobil und Nierentisch, Sissi und "Grün ist die Heide". Das waren die 50er Jahre. Jahre des Neuanfangs, des Wirtschaftswunders, der Sehnsucht nach Elvis und Coca-Cola...

Die 40er Jahre: eines der dunkelsten Kapitel der deutschen Geschichte. Auschwitz, Stalingrad. Vergebliche Versuche des Widerstands: Weiße Rose und Stauffenbergs Attentat auf Hitler...