Why read Historian's Fallacies?

Book cover of Historian's Fallacies: Toward a Logic of Historical Thought

Book description

"If one laughs when David Hackett Fischer sits down to play, one will stay to cheer. His book must be read three times: the first in anger, the srcond in laughter, the third in respect....The wisdom is expressed with a certin ruthlessness. Scarcly a major historian escapes unscathed. Ten thousand…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Historian's Fallacies as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Alan Pell Crawford

Author

I love this book, although it is not an “easy read” and should not be. Fischer meticulously catalogs the fallacies that even first-rate historians fall prey to in works that are important in our own time.

He names names and exposes weaknesses in their arguments (I wonder if any of his colleagues spoke to him after the book’s publication) and alerts the reader to errors of thinking and argument that plague historical writing and, I’d add, journalistic writing (and speaking) as well. All reporters should have to read this book, and all well-informed citizens would benefit as well.

From Alan's list on surviving an American presidential election.