Histories of Nations: How Their Identities Were Forged - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0500251819 ISBN 13: 9780500251812

Publisher: Thames & Hudson, 2013

Synopsis

Twenty-eight intimate and unconventional autobiographies of the nation/state, told by historians from their respective countries.

Global histories tend to be written from the narrow viewpoint of a single author and a single perspective, with the inevitable bias that it entails. But in this thought-provoking collection, twenty-eight writers and scholars give engaging, often passionate accounts of their own nation’s history. The countries have been selected to represent every continent and every type of state: large and small; mature democracies and religious autocracies; states that have existed for thousands of years and those born as recently as the twentieth century. Together they contain two-thirds of the world’s population. In the United States, for example, the myth of the nation’s “historylessness” remains strong, but in China history is seen to play a crucial role in legitimizing three thousand years of imperial authority. “History wars” over the content of textbooks rage in countries as diverse as Australia, Russia, and Japan. Some countries, such as Iran or Egypt, are blessed―or cursed―with a glorious ancient history that the present cannot equal; others, such as Germany, must find ways of approaching and reconciling the pain of the recent past. 202 illustrations, 157 in color

About this title

About the Author:

Peter Furtado has edited a number of bestselling history books, including Histories of Nations: How Their Identities Were Forged and 1001 Days That Shaped the World.

Review:

“

Making up two-thirds of the world's population, the 28 countries highlighted come from every  continent, and represent a range of political systems.

”
- ProtoView

About this edition

• Publisher: Thames & Hudson
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 0500251819
• ISBN 13: 9780500251812
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 320
• Editor: Furtado Peter