The Purpose of the Past

The Purpose of the Past is both a history of American history, and a testament to its ongoing necessity. Hailed by the Washington Post as "our preeminent historian of the Revolution," Pulitzer and Bancroft prize-winner Gordon S. Wood also happens to be one of America's great critics of history. In The Purpose of the Past, he examines the radical changes in the field over the past few decades by considering the work of some of its most important historians. By illuminating the craft of history, and reflecting on its evolving role in our culture, Wood surveys the landscape of our past. As Wood shows, these are both the best of times and the worst of times for American history. New currents of thought have brought refreshing and vitally necessary changes to the discipline, expanding its compass to include previously ignored groups and subjects. At the same time, however, strains of extreme relativism have assaulted the relevance, even the legitimacy of the historian's work. Many historians don't seek to understand the past on its own terms, but rather to serve the causes of the present. And increasingly the divide between the work of "academic" and "popular" historians has widened into a chasm, separating some of the field's most important and innovative ideas from what would give them much greater impact: any kind of real audience. But The Purpose of the Past is not another crotchety elegy for what history once was but sadly now isn't; it is a celebration of what, at its best, it is. Wood offers wonderful insight into what great historians do, how they can stumble, and what lessons we should and should not draw from the past. A master historian's commanding assessment of his field, The Purpose of the Past is, above all, a passionate defense of history's continuing relevance. Gordon S. Wood is the Alva O. Way University Professor and professor of history at Brown University. His 1969 book, The Creation of the American Republic 1776-1787, received the Bancroft and John H. Dunning prizes and was nominated for the National Book Award. His 1992 book The Radicalism of the American Revolution, won the Pulitzer Prize and the Emerson Prize. Wood contributes regularly to the New Republic and the New York Review of Books. Malcolm Hillgartner is an actor, author, songwriter, and playwright. He and his wife, Jahnna Beecham, have written more than 100 books for teens and young readers under the name Jahnna N. Malcolm, including the best-selling series The Jewel Kingdom. Their musicals, Chaps! and They Came from Way Out There (with Michael J. Hume), have played in theaters across the United States.