A TENDENCY TO FABRICATE HISTORY

The reason all historical associations put so much emphasis on historians being transparent is that they fully comprehend the power of the inherent trust—“the implicit assumption of honesty”—that we are forced to place in a historian. We have to trust that a relator of history is representing sources honestly and transparently because if readers cannot take that on faith historians cease to have value. The discipline of relating history collapses if we cannot trust The Historian.

DELUSIONAL LEWISOHN

The confidence with which Lewisohn recounts a series of events that only shows beyond all doubt that “the extraordinary story” he’s about to convey was not “unearthed,” but concocted—or dreamed—while clearly expecting the listener to see how it fits together and proves his narrative seems inexplicable to me by anything but delusion. Or if there is a rational explanation, it lies beyond my earthbound grasp.