Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Better late than never--I hope!

Yesterday my long-awaited post/interview of Harry Katz went up on emergingcivilwar.com.


His book is just wonderful, and worth every penny, so go buy it. We talk a lot about bias in my Master's classes, and it is books like this one that help me form my opinion: bias is great!


No, I don't believe that publishing books denying the Holocaust is fine, but I do think that passion for a topic, often misinterpreted as bias, is just fine.


Were it not for the passion/bias of Mr. Katz, and his belief that people need to see these images and learn about the men who created them, we would all be far poorer in our knowledge.


A historian has to believe in what she does, and she needs to work very hard to make people care about the things she loves. This is NOT the same as plainly twisting information to make a point, or trumpeting as facts information that is contradictory. This is bias, and poor history as well.


But this book?  Oh no! This is a labor of love and respect--we should ALL be biased in favor of those two qualities, no matter the topic.

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