Making History: The Storytellers Who Shaped the Past

by Richard Cohen Narrated by Richard Cohen

Overview

A “supremely entertaining” (The New Yorker) exploration of who gets to record the world's history-from Julius Caesar to William Shakespeare to Ken Burns-and how their biases influence our understanding about the past.

There are many stories we can spin about previous ages, but which accounts get told? And by whom? Is there even such a thing as “objective” history? In this “witty, wise, and elegant” (The Spectator), book, Richard Cohen reveals how professional historians and other equally significant witnesses, such as the writers of the Bible, novelists, and political propagandists, influence what becomes the accepted record. Cohen argues, for example, that some historians are practitioners of “Bad History” and twist reality to glorify themselves or their country.

“Scholarly, lively, quotable, up-to-date, and fun” (Hilary Mantel, author of the bestselling Thomas Cromwell trilogy), Making History investigates the published works and private utterances of our greatest chroniclers to discover the agendas that informed their-and our-views of the world. From the origins of history writing, when such an activity itself seemed revolutionary, through to television and the digital age, Cohen brings captivating figures to vivid light, from Thucydides and Tacitus to Voltaire and Gibbon, Winston Churchill and Henry Louis Gates. Rich in complex truths and surprising anecdotes, the result is a revealing exploration of both the aims and art of history-making, one that will lead us to rethink how we learn about our past and about ourselves.

Editorial Reviews

Amanda Foreman

Richard Cohen has written an utterly engaging love letter to history’s hidden story tellers. Provocative, funny but scrupulously fair, Making History is a timely reminder that history doesn’t write itself.

Library Journal (starred review)

"Insightful, thought-provoking, and thoroughly researched. History lovers will find this exceptionally well-written book as insightful as it is a pleasure to read."

Hilary Mantel

What a brilliant achievement! Like all Richard Cohen’s writing, Making History opens a dialogue with the reader—grave and witty, suave yet pointed, erudite yet engaging and full of energy. It has huge scope but never forfeits the telling detail. It is scholarly, lively, quotable, up-to-date, and fun.

The Spectator - Nigel Jones

"[A] superb survey from Herodotus to Mary Beard. . . . Witty, wise and elegant, this tremendous book deserves to become a classic of history itself.

Jon Meacham

What a grand, illuminating, and fun book! Richard Cohen takes us on a learned tour through the cacophony of history and of the characters who’ve told the stories that shape us. To understand who we are, we have to understand who we’ve been—and, as Cohen amply demonstrates, who has formed those understandings.

David Grann

With meticulous research and riveting anecdotes, Richard Cohen has peeled back the hidden history behind those who record our past. He brilliantly shows how an extraordinary gallery of characters—from prodigies to charlatans, from ideologues to heroes—has exposed, shaped, and, at times, bent and even covered up the facts. In the process, Cohen has achieved what only the finest historians can: He has scrupulously and engagingly made history.

The London Times - Christina Hardyment

"An enthralling investigation into the ways in which the background of historians affected and affects the way they present the past."

Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Cohen makes a persuasive argument that history is created by historians as much as by politics, war, economics, and other forces. . . . A fascinating and finely wrought history of history."

The Washington Post - Douglas Brinkley

"Sprawling and wildly ambitious, idiosyncratic and also consistently readable and engaging, Making History dives deep into the way history-driven scholars and artists — from Burns to Shakespeare to Herodotus — have shaped the collective memory of humankind."

The New Yorker - Louis Menand

"Supremely entertaining. . . . Whatever Cohen writes about he writes about with brio.

Jon Meacham

What a grand, illuminating, and fun book! Richard Cohen takes us on a learned tour through the cacophony of history and of the characters who’ve told the stories that shape us. To understand who we are, we have to understand who we’ve been—and, as Cohen amply demonstrates, who has formed those understandings.

Kirkus Reviews

2021-12-29
Former book publisher Cohen surveys the state of history writing over the past two millennia.

This wide-ranging account hits most of the predictable points in a traditional, occasionally entertaining introductory-level course on the writers of history in Western civilization. Cohen, the author of How To Write Like Tolstoy: A Journey Into the Minds of Our Greatest Writers and other books, begins with a chapter on Herodotus and Thucydides and then moves steadily forward, with chapters on Latin historians, medieval European historians, Civil War historians, “The Red Historians: From Karl Marx to Eric Hobsbawm,” and so forth. The work of Herodotus, he writes, “brought into play…a special kind of inquiry—one that encompasses geography, ethnography, philology, genealogy, sociology, biography, anthropology, psychology, and imaginative re-creation (as in the arts).” Cohen seldom considers history as written by scholars other than those in Europe and, later, North America, and he recapitulates the biography of each of the historians he considers, which leads to an uneven text. For example, he spends more time on Voltaire's many mistresses than on his thoughts and writings. This makes for smooth but rarely thought-provoking reading. While the book is useful as a broad overview for neophytes, readers looking for fresh insights into history and history writing should look elsewhere. As the narrative progresses, Cohen tends increasingly to group historians together not so much by historical period or approach to the subject matter as by less relevant standards. A chapter titled “Herstory” lumps together women scholars from the past 2,000 years, from Chinese historian and philosopher Ban Zhao to notable 20th-century historians Barbara Tuchman and Doris Kearns Goodwin, and the chapter on Black historians could have been more well considered. (Overall, the book is notable more for its length than depth.) Cohen branches out to consider, though seldom favorably, novelists, journalists, TV producers, and photographers as historians. The book is amply illustrated with photographs, maps, and cartoons.

Lively but long-winded and largely superficial biographies of historians through the ages.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940176325461
Publisher:	Simon & Schuster
Publication date:	04/19/2022
Edition description:	Unabridged

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