The Purpose of the Past: Reflections on the Uses of History Book

Gordon wood is the greatest living historian and one of the top living essayists. for some reason there's a hardcover version on amazon for $18 and then the same edition for only $6.99.





order this! trust me. if you've ever wondered about the relative nature of history, about the (im)possibility of truth, the relationship between ideas and revolution, the stupidity of the far left, the stupidity of the far right, the perils and/or necessity of american exceptionalism, marxism, multiculturalism, post-modernism, race class gender and how they relate to reality and history... (and written with such clarity and force and understanding and erudition and insight it'll make you wilt) - if a strange world of warring historians duking it out in books and journals and lectures and college campuses sounds in any way strange and fantastic and cool… order this.

gordon wood presents a major problem b/c he gets a seat at my 'table of people I'd like to eat dinner with, drink scotch with, and argue all night with' and that means i gotta kick someone out. i think it might be mario vargas llosa. sorry.

i'm also gonna do something wood would never do. plagiarize (with some minor edits). check it:

"If something terrible happens to me one day, and all that's left is my body, and if, around the same time, something terrible should happen to Gordon Wood and all that's left is his brain, I would hope that somehow medical science and luck would combine, and allow these terrible accidents to be resolved through a relatively happy solution, by which one of us (not Mr. Wood) would be greatly improved."

this book really deserves a proper review. i see it sits on jessica's 'currently reading' shelf -- she, of course, has a much sharper brain than myself and a much greater command of the english language. do it up, lady.