The landscape of history john lewis gaddis

This is a philosophical essay about what history is, what are its goals, etc. As such it actually covers a lot of subjects.

A Short Review of John Lewis Gaddis' "The Landscape …

I read is as a part of monthly reading for April at Non Fiction Book Club group.

The book starts with a picture that is on its cover - Caspar David Friedrich, The Wanderer above the Sea of Fog. The author compares the man on the picture with a historian, who looks on the fog of past from the present (and we, watchers, look at him from a future).

Then he goes with Jorge Luis Borges’ fable about “the Cartographers Guilds struck a map of the Empire whose size was that of the Empire, and which coincided point for point with it.” – just like such a map lacks any sense, so a historian doesn’t represent the history in its fullness, but selects some items over others. Just like a road map omits things that are important for e.g.

weather map, a history should serve some goals set by a historian. However, thi