"It is hard to think of three historians better equipped to deal with threats to the discipline of history . . . [which] is being fundamentally challenged in new ways."

--Gordon S. Wood, The New Republic

"A wise and moderate book. The authors, all distinguished historians . . . , speak with confidence about the value of both the historian's traditional craft and modern criticism of it. Their sane and readable discussion should give hope to [those] who . . . believe in the possibility--even the pleasure--of writing history."

--Caroline Walker Bynum

"A fascinating historiographical essay. . . . An unusually lucid and inclusive explication of what it ultimately at stake in the culture wars over the nature, goals, and efficacy of history as a discipline."

--Booklist

"A confident, breezy account of the historical profession's encounters with post-modernism and multiculturalism."

--David A. Hollinger, New York Times Book Review

Submitted By Publisher, December, 2002

During the 20th century, the accuracy of historical knowledge has been eroded by fictionalized versions of events in films, novels, and self-serving critics. Here the authors call for a return to the historian's legitimate search governed by agree

During the 20th century, the accuracy of historical knowledge has been eroded by fictionalized versions of events in films, novels, and self-serving critics. Here the authors call for a return to the historian's legitimate search governed by agreed-upon rules as to what determines historical truth.

The authors examine the role of history "in a postmodern world of 'absolutisms dethroned,' in a technological society that {they contend} has become deeply skeptical of the Enlightenment's heroic model of science. . . . {This book} traces the scientific and political ideas and ideals of the Enlightenment through American history from the Revolutionary War to the present. It is the 'insistent democratization of American society,' the authors argue, that has produced our 'skepticism and relativism about truth, not only in science but also in history and politics,' yet they maintain 'that truths about the past are possible, even if they are not absolute, and hence are worth struggling for.'" (Booklist) Index.

We have lost our grip on historical truth. Popular films depict subterranean conspiracies that shape historical events and public knowledge of those events. Best-selling narrative histories dissolve the border between fact and fiction, allowing the author's imagination to roam freely. Influential critics dissolve the author herself into one among many sources of meaning, reducing historical knowledge to a series of texts engaged with each other, not with the past. Powerful constituencies call for histories that affirm more than inform. This new book by three of our most accomplished historians engages the various criticisms that have fragmented the authority of historical knowledge. Although acknowledging degrees of legitimacy in the criticisms, the authors launch a pragmatic response that supports the historian, as they put it, in her long climb, notebook computer in tow, up the 300 stairs to the archives in Lyon. Even if historical truth is an ever-receding goal, the effort to approach it, they show, is legitimate, worthy, and governed by agreed-upon rules. And while affirming the claims of women and ethnic minorities to a rightful place in any narrative of American history, the authors insist on the accountability of history. They outline a coherent narrative of the American past that incorporates its multicultural dimension without special pleading.