Clio Confused - (Contributions in American History) by David Russo (Hardcover)

About the Book

Nations and other political entities are inadequate bases for studying the human past, because the other aspects of human life are not organized along the same lines as these political entities. All communities, including local ones, are amoeba-like, changing size and shape as we observe and probe them. Historians can improve the way they generalize about the past by tailoring their conclusions to the actual evidence they use. By using an array of historical questions of interest to scholars in all of the humanistically oriented disciplines, historians can offer more profound interpretations of their subjects, rather than confining themselves to an explanation of how and why human life evolves or persists through time and space. By doing so, historians can also significantly extend their influence among the general population.

Book Synopsis

Nations and other political entities are inadequate bases for studying the human past, because the other aspects of human life are not organized along the same lines as these political entities. All communities, including local ones, are amoeba-like, changing size and shape as we observe and probe them. Historians can improve the way they generalize about the past by tailoring their conclusions to the actual evidence they use. By using an array of historical questions of interest to scholars in all of the humanistically oriented disciplines, historians can offer more profound interpretations of their subjects, rather than confining themselves to an explanation of how and why human life evolves or persists through time and space. By doing so, historians can also significantly extend their influence among the general population.

Review Quotes

?Clio Confused is a highly personal book, and it will provoke highly personal reflection if given the exposure in the profession it deserves.?-Canadian Journal of History

?Daviv Russo...suggestively engages some of the most important issues facing contemporary historians...raises critical questions about the practice of the historical profession in the late twentieth century.?-Canadian Review of American Studies

"Clio Confused is a highly personal book, and it will provoke highly personal reflection if given the exposure in the profession it deserves."-Canadian Journal of History

"Daviv Russo...suggestively engages some of the most important issues facing contemporary historians...raises critical questions about the practice of the historical profession in the late twentieth century."-Canadian Review of American Studies

About the Author

DAVID J. RUSSO is a Professor of U.S. History at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. He is the author of Families and Communities: A New View of American History (1974) and Keepers of Our Past: Local Historical Writing in the United States (Greenwood Press, 1988).