Recovering the Past: A Historian's Memoir Book

We all owe a debt of gratitude to the young Forrest McDonald (1927-2016) for demolishing the once popular, but basically unresearched, notions of Charles Beard in McDonald's We the People: The Economic Origins of the Constitution (1958). (In Recovering the Past, we learn that McDonald's monumental research for that book was, in part, made possible by his capacity for living simply and sleeping hardly at all.)

Although McDonald has written a number of important books since the 1950s, the most important contribution of this brief and fast-paced memoir is the author's summary of twentieth-century American historiography from a conservative point of view. McDonald spends one of his seven chapters describing the "New History"'"The World as I Entered It"'and then harrumphs his way through the remainder of the century, concluding with some well-deserved tongue clucking at the malfeasance of Michael Bellesiles.

Unlike most memoirs, McDonald passes quickly over his earliest years, either because he's not the introspective sort or so that he can spend more time glorying in his early academic successes. His self-praise (though often deserved) will probably strike some readers as amusing. Many historians have probably thought, but few have written, "I did a smashing job; the book reads like a novel." (94)

Nevertheless, this is a fine memoir, easy to read and digest. You don't even have to like McDonald or his professional score-settling to admire his literary craftsmanship.