Opinion and Accuracy II

I posted the entire article along with my commentary to the Anthroposophy Tomorrow Yahoo group. Peter Staudenmaier (a so-called historian and self-professed expert on Anthroposophy) objected: This is very, very naive. Anyone who opens up a history book looking for analysis-free facts, devoid of explanations and personal thoughts, is being extraordinarily foolish. I responded: Peter, you are polarizing the issue to create a...

Opinion and accuracy

I read something interesting in the New York times recently. The piece was called The Privileges of Opinion, the Obligations of Fact I find this an interesting piece on the relationship of fact to opinion in the practice of journalism. It should have some relationship to discussions of how historians operate, and the difference between historians and polemicists. I see the historian much like the journalist, and the...

The Fate Of The German-Speaking People…

The Fate Of The German-Speaking People And Their Plight – Is There A Way Out? (Das Shicksal des deutschen Volkes und seine Not – Gibt es einen Ausweg?) Karl Heyer, Dr. jur. Et phil. Reviewed by Daniel Hindes This interesting book, a pamphlet really, was published in 1932. The title page indicates that this is the second printing. Dr. Karl Heyer, as the cover informs us, held a PhD in law and another in Philosophy. He was a...

Objectivity in History

I think that the problem with objectivity in history is similar to the problem of objectivity in journalism. Everyone agrees that objectivity is the aim, but it has also been shown that objectivity is not technically possible. So what do we do with this paradox? One response is to celebrate the inability to be fully objective by not even trying. If we can’t achieve the goal, then why make the effort? The other response...

Ecology in the 20th Century – A History

Ecology in the 20th Century – A History By Anna Bramwell Review by Daniel Hindes By its title, this book, published 1989, purports to be a history of Ecology in the 20th Century. It is actually a rather critical look at the various ideas behind a relationship to nature that our author has collectively termed “ecologist”, and their political implications. As stated in the Preface “I argue that today’s Greens, in...