Posts Tagged ‘social history’

Media Center: ‘Undivided Past’ by David Cannadine

March 28th, 2013

WHO: David Cannadine

WHAT: THE UNDIVIDED PAST:
Humanity Beyond Our Differences

WHEN: Published by Knopf April 12, 2013

WHERE: The author teaches at Princeton

WHY:
“A stirring critique of history that questions conventional approaches to narrating the human chronicle.

“David Cannadine rejects the Manichaean simplicities of ‘us vs. them’ and ‘good vs. evil’ embodied in traditional histories’ preoccupation with ‘difference’ as well as the alleged uniformity of antagonistic groups. He investigates the categories of religion, nation, class, gender, race and ‘civilization’ to reveal the persistence of thinking in adversarial absolutes—the malevolent or hapless ‘other’—and the incalculable damage this mindset has caused. He insists that we indulge in arbitrary, incomplete group ‘identities’ and ignore at our peril the interactions that go on across supposedly impermeable boundaries.
“The author is no Pollyanna. In assaying the work of such predecessors as Gibbon, Huntington and Toynbee, as well as contemporaries of the caliber of Fernández-Armesto, he acknowledges the strife that has occurred within these often self-contradictory categories but argues convincingly that such tensions are far outweighed by a history of mutual borrowing and cross-fertilization between peoples. Of particular salience are his observations on religion and perception as expressed in a divergent view of the relationship between Christianity and Islam.
“That we exaggerate animosities and fail to recognize how cooperation, at least as much as conflict, has marked humanity’s experience, may seem a Jacket photobelaboring of the obvious. Yet Cannadine details it in fresh and provocative terms. Persuasive, impassioned…an incisive argument buttressed by millennia of evidence.” —KIRKUS, a starred review

“A sweeping look at the myriad ways we’ve been at each other’s throats throughout history.” —Vanessa Bush,
in a starred review for BOOKLIST.

Media Resources:
About the book | Author bio | Download the jacket or the author photo | Also available as an eBook

Publicist for this title:
Kim Thornton | 212-572-2299 | kthornton@randomhouse.com