After the Fact: The Art of Historical Detection Vol 1

Rating:
Summary: History written the way history should be written
Review: In each of its editions, After the Fact remains one of my favorite books. The first time I read the book, I began the Introduction (often a daunting task) and read the authors' account of using the tree rings on a recently cut-down tree as a device for recalling local history, and I was hooked! I have read each of the editions (except the recently published hardback) and think they are great. Davidson and Lytle take people and/or events in United States history and write chapters on the events demonstrating methods and techniques used in studying and writing history. This sounds heavy and boring -- but it isn't. The reality is an engrossing look at events -- some well-known, others almost unknown -- that reminds us that good history requires a good narrative and that historians have to use many different methods and techniques to get the information they need to write their narratives. The chapters combine one incident and one aspect of how historians go about doing history. The chapter on the Salem witch trials tells a good story while introducing the reader painlessly to the historical concepts of demographics, multiple causation, community dynamics, and the status of women in 17th century New England. It also gives several reasons the young accusers may have had physical convulsions. Psychohistory is the method explored in the chapter on John Brown and leads the reader to think about the whole concept of madness or insanity in our legal system and what constitutes sanity. The Prologue is one of my favorite chapters, taking a relatively unknown diplomat from the Revolutionary period, Silas Deane, and using the circumstances of his death to discuss the pivotal hisorical issue of evidence and how difficult it is to determine which pieces of evidence are important. A theme running through these chapters and many of the others is how much we don't know about historical events and how even the best history is open to various interpretations. It reminds me why many historians also like to read mysteries and detective fiction. Since the first edition was published, I have used After the Fact in classes that I teach on the college level. My students love it! Even students who don't find history very interesting usually enjoy at least parts of After the Fact. They find it more interesting than they expect a history text book to be. So do I. I couldn't even guess how many times I've read the book, and each time I'm struck by how fresh and interesting most of it remains. Above all else, it is history written the way history should be written.

Rating:
Summary: A must read for those who like history and a good story.
Review: Readers should know my husband is one of the two authors. They should also know that my women's book club read it. None of us are historians or even regular readers of history. We all found ourselves engaged by the insights into events we thought we knew something about. Our favorite chapter was the revised look at the Salem witch trials. We were amazed how much historical scholarship has shifted over the past years. We also prefer the nw chapter on the Dust Bowl to the previous Huey Long chapter. Most of us had read The Grapes of Wrath, but never though much about its relationship to the real stories of the great depression. And all of us lived through Watergate. We did not realize until we read the new chapter on the White House tapes just how bazaar Richard Nixon was. If you like history, you'll love this book.

Rating:
Summary: A must read for those who like history and a good story.
Review: Readers should know my husband is one of the two authors. They should also know that my women's book club read it. None of us are historians or even regular readers of history. We all found ourselves engaged by the insights into events we thought we knew something about. Our favorite chapter was the revised look at the Salem witch trials. We were amazed how much historical scholarship has shifted over the past years. We also prefer the nw chapter on the Dust Bowl to the previous Huey Long chapter. Most of us had read The Grapes of Wrath, but never though much about its relationship to the real stories of the great depression. And all of us lived through Watergate. We did not realize until we read the new chapter on the White House tapes just how bazaar Richard Nixon was. If you like history, you'll love this book.

Rating:
Summary: Greatly Overrated
Review: While James West Davidson's "After the Fact" is thought-provoking, much of what he writes is simply inaccurrate. His lack of research or deliberate withholding of certain evidence to merely prove his views is disdainful. This is especially evident in his chapter on Vietnam War movies in which he gives some completely inaccurrate information (such as claiming the Russian Roulette was not played in Vietnam, while some vets admit they were forced to play it while prisoner). He also shows obvious liberal bias by accusing most Vietnam films to be unrealistic because they do not include an event similar to the My Lai Massacre. With all due respect to Mr. Davidson, events such as the My Lai Massacre are given much press time, but did not really occur very often. How can every movie about a war be expected to show a certain event the way Mr. Davidson wants it depicted? A final gripe with this section is the author's claim that it was "wrong" to portray Viet-Cong soldiers as inhuman in "The Deer Hunter", and that this contributed to making the film unrealistic. "Deer Hunter" was obviously meant to show the American viewpoint of Vietnam, and how the war affected not only those who fought in it, but almost everyone at home in America. While portraying the American viewpoint, it is necessary to show the Viet-Cong as evil (would you revere someone who forced you to play Russian Roulette with your best friend?). Many other sections of the book show Davidson's obvious political bias, and if you truly desire to discover how (and are not averse to extreme suffering), read the book (but don't say you weren't warned).