If I Had Been There

About the Book

I am under no illusion that an adequate view of American history can be presented so simply that it can be understood without pauses to reflect, and without frequent review of what has gone on before. This presentation deliberately seeks to furnish something which the reader must stretch his mental powers to grasp. I have the feeling that I have drawn from the historian’s stock in trade, striking phrases and ideas which might be reached with enormous labor and be traced to specific conclusions by the reader. History is far more than mere facts –– it is an insight into the processes of human life. Truth is the sum total of the facts, for they can be and are marshaled to prove any point of view. To put this statement in a true perspective –– “History is the intellectual form in which a civilization renders account to itself of its past.”

About the Author

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