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Seller's Description:
Like New. Size: 8x5x0; Unread and unopened! (Hard to list as 'New' when it's 45 years old). See photo. When history is written with a four inch brush, most of the experience of the species is left out. The preparation of majestic accounts which are concerned with squaring the past with the eternal verities and galactic-scaled movements as well as various categories of ethereal abstractions finds no use for several classes of jagged facts which would interrupt the serene flow of such tales, and give some inkling as to how complicated affairs can get, as well as indicating how perverse, obstreperous, ornery and marvellously diverse the human species can be. It is understandable in the above situation that space limitations have a large part to play in the decisions which have to be made as to what is to be left out. At least in works of this kind the authors have a plausible excuse, one which increases in credibility as the scope of the undertaking is expanded in conception. But it is commonly observed that even when the dimensions of the project have been substantially circumscribed, there is still a strong tendency to neglect to include a part of the record which may vary from modest to generous, for a wide variety of reasons, resulting in lopsided distortions which become so numerous that they are almost a convention. As a result, complaint over the incompleteness of historical accounts becomes continuous. So while it may seem reasonable to present a case in extenuation of a Gibbon, a Spengler, a Toynbee, an H. G. Wells or a Will Durant, it becomes less convincing to read apologies for the lapses and lacunae in works of somewhat less grand imagination and structure. From the beginning of the attempt to put on the record what humankind has been up to, this situation has existed, and all manner of wondrous devices have been recommended as ways to deal with the problem while creating a minimum of disturbance. Excuses of the most exquisite urbanity have been advanced for many generations for excising from the record this or that class of events. Selectivity of facts has long been developed into a science. A clever strategem such as the recent insinuation that only part of the past is usable, and that what does not fit into the plausible narrative can be jettisoned for eternity without exciting any qualms on the part of those dumping them overboard, is one of the ingenious techniques which has been invented and utilized. There have been many commentaries on the arbitrariness of those who set out to memorialize the past, and the ways they go about emphasizing, reducing in significance, neglecting or completely expunging from the record this or that class of fact, other than simply not knowing what took place. Ignorance may exceed all deliberate and conscious efforts to short change the historical record, perhaps.
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Seller's Description:
Fair. This is a used book. It may contain highlighting/underlining and/or the book may show heavier signs of wear. It may also be ex-library or without dustjacket. This is a used book. It may contain highlighting/underlining and/or the book may show heavier signs of wear. It may also be ex-library or without dustjacket.
