Dangerous Games: The Uses and Abuses of History (Hardcover) by Margaret MacMillan

from stephengoldenberg

This does exactly what it says on the cover, although it's rather more about the abuses and misuses than about the uses. The chief villain of the piece is nationalism/patriotism - the reason why so much of history is falsified or, at the very least, used selectively. Margaret MacMillan's short bo...

from sjmccreary

A nifty little book about the different ways that people throughout the world use history. Leaders compare themselves to well-respected leaders of the past in order to gain support. Victors re-write history to glorify themselves, painting the defeated as unimportant or unworthy, causing history t...

from sjmccreary

A nifty little book about the different ways that people throughout the world use history. Leaders compare themselves to well-respected leaders of the past in order to gain support. Victors re-write history to glorify themselves, painting the defeated as unimportant or unworthy, causing history t...

from RobertP

Margaret MacMillan is a brilliant writer and historian. This is not her best book. It is not very detailed, and to me is a fine skim through good and bad uses of history, but a bit superficial. Its roots in a lecture are evident. Apparently good people use good history well, bad people use bad hi...

from RobertP

Margaret MacMillan is a brilliant writer and historian. This is not her best book. It is not very detailed, and to me is a fine skim through good and bad uses of history, but a bit superficial. Its roots in a lecture are evident. Apparently good people use good history well, bad people use bad hi...