telling the truth

I am writing a book review of Telling The Truth About History by Joyce Appleby, Lynn Hunt and Margaret Jacob. In this book, the authors’ talk about the increased skepticism and the position that relativism has lessen our ability to actually know and to write about the past. The book discusses the writing of history, and how people are struggling with the issues of what is “truth.” It also discusses the postmodernist movement and how future historians can avoid the mistakes by historians from the past. Telling The Truth About History gives great insight and knowledge to those who are non-historians because it looks at the dispute and inadequacy of past historical approaches to the study of history and that science is dead. I hold that history was not written in Labs and therefore cannot be compared to science. In my review I will critique the three-absolutist ideas made by Newton and Darwin.

First, Appleby, Lynn, and Jacob discussed the ideas concerning history. The first idea described how Newton and Darwin became chief examples of the Heroic model of science. Then, in a later chapter, the authors’ show how Newton and Darwin fell from grace and the effect this had on history as a discipline.

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The third absolute outlined by the authors grew out of nationalism. These two ideas later resulted in many debates over the truthfulness of history. This kind of approach was most commonly accepted until the early 20th Century when scientists began to become the tools of governments and political agen!

das. According to the book, this was an outcome of the link of history and science. "History would henceforth depend on research in archives and original sources as tests of the facts (56). The authors looked at the history of the United States as it was portrayed in the 19th and early 20th Centuries. The historians of the time were accused of serving America and God rather than the discipline of history (113). The strong American Nationalism in the United States affected how history was reported. The Romantic historian, Johann Herder, argued that each culture and historical period in history "had to be understood on its own terms (64). Darwin was discredited because he based some of his ideas on the writings of Malthus instead of scientific experiments. The postmodernists argue that there is no truth in history or science.

The second absolute idea looked at the development of human laws and the idea that humans were being pulled forward through an orderly process of change (241). Equality and democracy only existed for, white males. I analyze that Newton and Darwin made new scientific discoveries through research and mathematics. It gives a clear, concise outline of the different approaches to studying history and their respective criticisms.

Approximate Word count = 815
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

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