I finished the Professor’s Guide to Reading Literature and have since picked up The Hotel at the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford (see this post),The Landscape of History: How Historians Map the Past by John Lewis Gaddis (recommended by a friend last weekend), and The Elegance of the Hedgehog (originally published in France and finally translated over to English; also highly recommended by friends) by Muriel Barbery. All three have been spectacular so far.
What is history and why should we study it? Is there such a thing as
historical truth? Is history a science? One of the most accomplished
historians at work today, John Lewis Gaddis, answers these and other
questions in this short, witty, and humane book. The Landscape of
History provides a searching look at the historian’s craft, as well as
a strong argument for why a historical consciousness should matter to
us today. Gaddis points out that while the historical method is more
sophisticated than most historians realize, it doesn’t require
unintelligible prose to explain. Like cartographers mapping landscapes,
historians represent what they can never replicate. In doing so, they
combine the techniques of artists, geologists, paleontologists, and
evolutionary biologists. Their approaches parallel, in intriguing ways,
the new sciences of chaos, complexity, and criticality. They don’t much
resemble what happens in the social sciences, where the pursuit of
independent variables functioning with static systems seems
increasingly divorced from the world as we know it. So who’s really
being scientific and who isn’t? This question too is one Gaddis
explores, in ways that are certain to spark interdisciplinary
controversy. Written in the tradition of Marc Bloch and E.H. Carr, The
Landscape of History is at once an engaging introduction to the
historical method for beginners, a powerful reaffirmation of it for
practitioners, a startling challenge to social scientists, and an
effective skewering of post-modernist claims that we can’t know
anything at all about the past. It will be essential reading for anyone
who reads, writes, teaches, or cares about history.
Reviews
“Will… never allow either the reader of
history or the writer of it to think about the past in quite the same
way as before.”–The New York Times
“A masterful statement on the
historical method…. Gaddis’ characterization of the social sciences
will surely spark debate even as it illuminates important intellectual
connections between the disciplines. Delightfully readable, the book is
a grand celebration of the pursuit of knowledge.”–Foreign Affairs
“A bold and challenging book, unafraid of inviting controversy. It
provides a strong statement for our time of both the limits and the
value of the historical enterprise.”–The New York Times Book Review
“A real tour de force: a delight to read, and a light-hearted
celebration of the odd, ‘fractal’ patterns that intellectual and other
forms of human and natural history exhibit.”–William H. McNeill
“Turns the old argument over science and history upside down.”–The Washington Post Book World
“Never before have I come across a book that so illuminated the craft of the historian.”–Michael Pakenham, The Baltimore Sun
“This is another of those books that rewards the effort it requires.
Besides providing invaluable insights into how the historian goes about
his business, it teaches–like all really good books–of life beyond
its boundaries.”–Colin Walters, Washington Times
The Washington Post writes,
“Michel is the
dumpy, nondescript, 54-year-old concierge of a small and exclusive
Paris apartment building. Its handful of tenants include a celebrated
restaurant critic, high government officials and members of the old
nobility. Every day these residents pass by the loge of Madame Michel
and, unless they want something from her, scarcely notice that she is
alive. As it happens, Renée Michel prefers it that way. There is far
more to her than meets the eye.Paloma Josse also lives in the
building. Acutely intelligent, introspective and philosophical, this
12-year-old views the world as absurd and records her observations
about it in her journal. She despises her coddled existence, her older
sister Colombe (who is studying at the École normale supérieure), and
her well-to-do parents, especially her plant-obsessed mother. After
careful consideration of what life is like, Paloma has secretly decided
to kill herself on her 13th birthday.These two characters provide the
double narrative of The Elegance of the Hedgehog, and you will — this
is going to sound corny — fall in love with both. In Europe, where
Muriel Barbery’s book became a huge bestseller in 2007, it has inspired
the kind of affection and enthusiasm American readers bestow on the
works of Alexander McCall Smith. Still, this is a very French novel:
tender and satirical in its overall tone, yet most absorbing because of
its reflections on the nature of beauty and art, the meaning of life
and death. Out of context, Madame Michel’s pensees may occasionally
sound pretentious, just as Paloma might sometimes pass for a Gallic
(and female) version of Holden Caulfield. But, for the most part,
Barbery makes us believe in these two unbelievable characters.”
European reviews rave about the book:
“The formula that made more than half
a million readers in France fall in love with this book has, among
other ingredients: intelligent humor, fine sentiments, an excellent
literary and philosophical backdrop, good taste, sophistication and
substance.”
—La Repubblica“Enthusiastically recommended for anyone who loves books that grow quietly and then blossom suddenly.”
—Marie Claire (France)“An exquisite book in the form of a philosophical fable that has enchanted hundreds of thousands of readers.”
—Elle (Italy)“Nobody ever imagined that this tender, funny book with a philosophical
vein would have enjoyed such incredible success. For some, it is part Sophie’s WorldMonsieur Malaussene
by Daniel Pennac. While for others it resembles a written version of
the film Amelie. Either way, readers are responding in vast numbers.”
—Le Monde
I’ll let you know how they turn out. Happy Friday! Happy reading all.
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