Status
Available
Call number
Collection
Publication
Publisher Unknown
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 members of the AmericanHistorical Association will rush to the index and breathe a little easier to find their names absent.
User reviews
LibraryThing member TLCrawford
David Fischer’s book Historians' Fallacies: toward a logic of historical thought is one of the most helpful method focused historiographies I have read. It is also one of the most daring. Fischer, then a young PhD, gives examples of failures in reasoning pulled from the published writings of his
If I had a complaint it would be that the book has not been updated in forty years. Most of the works he pulled his examples from are lost in the past. I am sure that, even after the publication of this book, logical fallacies have crept into current works.
On the other hand reading Fischer speak of America’s Viet Nam policy in the present tense reminded me of my youth and made me check the books publication date. Thanks to reading the book I know that just because Star Trek’s Mr. Spock was popularizing logical thought just a few years before the books publication Spock is not necessarily the reason it was written.
Show More
more experienced fellows. I see myself rereading this book until his list of errors of logic are firmly lodged in my mind and I can recognize them in my own work as well as I do when he explains his examples. If I had a complaint it would be that the book has not been updated in forty years. Most of the works he pulled his examples from are lost in the past. I am sure that, even after the publication of this book, logical fallacies have crept into current works.
On the other hand reading Fischer speak of America’s Viet Nam policy in the present tense reminded me of my youth and made me check the books publication date. Thanks to reading the book I know that just because Star Trek’s Mr. Spock was popularizing logical thought just a few years before the books publication Spock is not necessarily the reason it was written.
Show Less
LibraryThing member tuckerresearch
A bit slow in places, but it details the logical fallacies that even the best historians make whether they know it or not.
LibraryThing member KLmesoftly
This book is an essential read for anyone considering a career as a historian, or even interested in the historical process and wanting to be able to look at historical writing more critically.
I'll agree with the commenter that said the book dragged in places--by the end you can definitely tell he
I'll agree with the commenter that said the book dragged in places--by the end you can definitely tell he
Show More
had a length requirement to meet! Still, the first 75% of the book is incredibly useful, even if you just want to be able to shout "Fallacy!" during debates with friends. ;) Show Less
LibraryThing member jerry-book
A good correction to many mistakes by historians. But pretty academic.
LibraryThing member reenactorman
Dear Lord, if you ever get assigned this book in class you are in for it. Fischer may have had a legitimate purpose when he set out, but allow me to sum up the finished version: "Every other historian sucks at what they do except me, and here's why, using only words that have more than 5
Show More
syllables." When I was forced to read this in grad school I looked at the size and the small chunks assigned each week and figured this will be easy. Oh boy was I wrong. There were instances where I had to re-read multiple times, not just sentences or paragraphs but entire chapters. And needed a dictionary at hand for words he used that I'd not encountered before or since. I actually enjoyed the author's book about Paul Revere. The obvious difference in genre being a given, this thing is still night and day different in how written. He does make some valid points but to say that he makes the reader labor to get there is an understatement of epic proportions. Show Less
Subjects
Original publication date
1970