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How do we know what happened in the past? We cannot go back, and no amount of historical data can enable us to understand with absolute certainty what life was like -then.- It is easy to demolish the very idea of historical knowing, but it is impossible to demolish the importance of historical knowing. In an age of cable television pundits and anonymous bloggers dueling over history, the value of owning history increases at the same time as our confidence in history as a way of knowing crumbles. Historical knowledge thus presents a paradox -- the more it is required, the less reliable it...

In the 1740s, two quite different developments revolutionized Anglo-American life and thought--the Enlightenment and the Great Awakening. This book takes an encounter between the paragons of each movement--the printer and entrepreneur Benjamin Franklin and the British-born revivalist George Whitefield--as an opportunity to explore the meaning of the beginnings of modern science and rationality on one hand and evangelical religious enthusiasm on the other.

There are people who both represent the times in which they live and change them for the better. Franklin and Whitefield were two...

How do we know what happened in the past? We cannot go back, and no amount of historical data can enable us to understand with absolute certainty what life was like -then.- It is easy to demolish the very idea of historical knowing, but it is impossible to demolish the importance of historical knowing. In an age of cable television pundits and anonymous bloggers dueling over history, the value of owning history increases at the same time as our confidence in history as a way of knowing crumbles. Historical knowledge thus presents a paradox -- the more it is required, the less reliable it...

Mention the term witch hunt, and Salem, Massachusetts, springs to mind--and with it the power of superstition, the danger of mob mentality, and our natural fear of gross injustice. For more than a year, between January 1692 and May 1693, the men and women of Salem village lived in heightened fear of witches and their master, the Devil. Hundreds were accused of practicing witchcraft. Many suspects languished in jail for months. Nineteen men and women were hanged; one was pressed to death. Neighbors turned against neighbors, children informed on their parents, and ministers denounced...

-A learned, lively, and witty review of the history of historical writing... A deeply insightful analysis of the never-ending challenge that historians face in getting their story right.- - Richard R. Beeman, John Welsh Centennial Professor of History Emeritus, University of Pennsylvania

-I cannot imagine a reader of this book who will not learn from it and be provoked to a new level of thoughtfulness by it.- - Michael Zuckerman, University of Pennsylvania

-Students and general readers will find no more engaging guide to the value and distinctiveness of what historians do.- -...