Routledge 2003. Soft cover, 416 pp.
Use and Abuse of History has become a key text of current
historiography; this is a book that poses fundamental and disturbing
questions about the use and abuse of history. Engaging and challenging,
this book confronts the reader with the many 'histories' that exist and
have existed around the world, from the Zulu kingdoms to Communist
China. This title has now been extensively revised by Marc Ferro,
a well respected historian, and presents the different narratives that
constitute the histories of countries as diverse as India, Iran,
Trinidad and the United States makes for fascinating reading in their
own right. What makes this book so valuable, though, is what these
narratives tell us about the societies which create them – how much is
history distorted in order to condition the minds of those who are
taught it?