The Uses and Abuses of History

The past is capricious enough to support every stance - no matter how questionable. In 2002, the Bush administration decided that dealing with Saddam Hussein was like appeasing Hitler or Mussolini, and promptly invaded Iraq. Were they wrong to look to history for guidance? No; their mistake was to exaggerate

"While life needs the services of history, it must just as clearly be comprehended that an excess measure of history will do harm to the living," declares Friedrich Nietzsche in this cautionary polemic. The iconoclastic philosopher warns us about the dangers of an uncritical devotion to the study of the

Acclaimed historian Margaret MacMillan explores here the many ways in which history affects us all. She shows how a deeper engagement with history, both as individuals and in the sphere of public debate, can help us understand ourselves and the world better. But she also warns that history can be

Use and Abuse of History has become a key text of current historiography; this is a book that poses fundamental and disturbing questions about the use and abuse of history. Engaging and challenging, this book confronts the reader with the many 'histories' that exist and have existed around the world,

Few writers have taught us more about the ancient world than M. I finley. This provocative and wide-ranging collection of his essays contains illuminating discussions of some major issues: the nature of the Spartan state, the development of Greek law, mythological thinking in the Greek historians, utopian ideas old and