{"product_id":"9781599216928","title":"A Brief History of History: Great Historians and the Epic Quest to Explain the Past","description":"What Daniel Boorstin did for science in The Discoverers, Colin Wells now does for history in \u003ci\u003eA Brief History of History\u003c\/i\u003e. An accessible and lively biography of history as a living idea, this book brings together evocative sketches of the great historians with concise summaries of their most important works. Moving forward through the ages, Wells shows us how such brilliant minds have changed our understanding of history, how history itself moved forward over time as a way of approaching the past, and why “history” is a startlingly fluid concept, with an evolutionary course—a story—all its own. \u003cbr\u003eHistory is the turf on which we fight our culture wars. Given its humble origins as a minor literary genre in ancient Greece, the study of history stands today as perhaps the most successful monument to the global spread of Western civilization, rivaling even science in its ubiquity. Yet it did not have to turn out that way. While tracing the evolution of history, Wells shows how this branch of knowledge has at times been rejected and scorned by those who questioned its very legitimacy. \u003cbr\u003eWells begins by arguing that history has two “parents” in the ancient Greek world, epic poetry and science, and that its first two practitioners, Herodotus and Thucydides, each took after one of those parents respectively. This dichotomy serves as a backdrop for the larger narrative that follows, in which “the scientist” dominates the writing of history until very recent times, when “the storyteller” makes a comeback. \u003cbr\u003eA riveting blend of vibrant prose and penetrating insight, \u003ci\u003eA Brief History of History\u003c\/i\u003e is a must for anyoneinterested in how we look at the past.  ","brand":"Globe Pequot Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47151239201008,"sku":"9781599216928","price":12.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781599216928_p0.jpg?v=1763813304","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781599216928","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}