Making history: the storytellers who shaped the past
(CD Audiobook)

"There are many stories we can spin about years gone by, but which accounts come to be told, and by whom? A single author can deeply shape our understanding through the prism of their own beliefs. In 'Making History,' Richard Cohen reveals how historians, novelists, dramatists, journalists, political propagandists, and even the writers of the Bible have influenced and continued to influence the accepted records of human experience. Is there, he asks, even such a thing as 'objective' history? And what is it to call someone a historian in the first place? A lively tour guide, Cohen leads a delightful inquiry into the published works and private utterances of our greatest historical thinkers to discover the agendas that informed their views of the world, and which in so many ways have informed ours. From the origins of history writing--when such an idea deemed itself revolutionary--to the practitioners of 'Bad History' (those fiends who twist reality to glorify themselves and conceal their own or their country's behavior), Cohen's inquiry takes us all the way up through the advent of television and the digital age. With captivating figures brought to vivid life, from Thucydides and Tacitus to Voltaire and Gibbon, from Ulysses S. Grant and Frederick Douglass to Winston Churchill and Mary Beard, 'Making History' is an unusually authoritative and supremely entertaining volume. Rich in character, complex truths, and surprising anecdotes, the result is a unique exploration of how both the aims and the craft of history making that will lead us to think anew about our past and the stories we tell ourselves about it." -- Back cover