Why read Empathy and the Historical Understanding of the Human Past?

Book cover of Empathy and the Historical Understanding of the Human Past

Book description

Empathy and the Historical Understanding of the Human Past is a comprehensive consideration of the role of empathy in historical knowledge, informed by the literature on empathy in fields including history, psychoanalysis, psychology, neuroscience, philosophy, and sociology.

The book seeks to raise the consciousness of historians about empathy, by introducing…

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History

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Why read it?

1 author picked Empathy and the Historical Understanding of the Human Past as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Samuel Fleischacker

Author

Yes, I know, this book has a long, very academic title. But it’s actually very short and clearly-written, explaining both to professionals and to laypeople why empathy is essential to writing good history. Kohut is a distinguished historian of modern Germany, who also has psychoanalytic training, and he makes a convincing case that we can properly understand even such horrific events as the Wannsee conference (which instituted the Nazis’ “final solution” to the problem of the Jews) only if we enter into the perspective of the people who attended it. This is an eye-opening book on an extremely important topic.

From Samuel's list on The best books on the importance of empathy.