Product Description

Colonialism, the Irish potato famine, slavery, the treatment of aboriginal people politicians are under increasing pressure to apologise for Britain s history. Collective grief is becoming the basis of public policy. Jeremy Black one of the UK s leading historians argues that this is a dangerous development. There is a politics of grievance that runs through the polemical use of history around the world. Drawing on examples from the UK, USA, Eastern Europe, Germany, Australia, and New Zealand, The Curse of History illustrates why this is dangerous: politically it splits communities rather than drawing them together, while historically it leads to distorted and monolithic interpretations. The Curse of History is a devastating critique of the political abuse of history.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #318989 in Books
• Published on: 2008-03-17
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 234 pages

About the Author
Jeremy Black is Professor of History at the University of Exeter and the author, amongst much else, of War and the World, 1450-2000 (Yale), The British Seaborne Empire (Yale), Maps and History (Yale), The Holocaust (Social Affairs Unit), The Slave Trade (Social Affairs Unit) and A Short History of Britain (Social Affairs Unit).