James M. Banner, Jr.

An experienced, multi-faceted historian shows how revisionist history is at the heart of creating historical knowledge. "A rallying cry in favour of historians who, revisiting past subjects, change their minds. . . . Rewarding reading."—Kirkus Reviews "A wise, erudite, and, perhaps most important, a clearly written examination of the ways historians go about their craft of interpreting and reinterpreting the...

History is not, and has never been, inert, certain, merely factual, and beyond reinterpretation. Taking readers from Thucydides to the origin of the French Revolution to the Civil War and beyond, James M. Banner, Jr. explores what historians do and why they do it. Banner shows why historical knowledge is unlikely ever to be unchanging, why history as a branch...