Anne CURTHOYS, John DOCKER, Is History Fiction ?
UNSW Press, 2005, 304 p.
ISBN : 0868407348
Is History Fiction? explores in fresh and innovative ways the perennial question, What is History? How can we in the present know the past? In a wonderful journey that starts with the classical Greeks and travels through the centuries to more recent forms of history that are framed by Marxism, postmodernism and feminism, John Docker and Ann Curthoys find that history has a double character. It is both a rigorous scrutiny of sources, and, because it presents the results of its enquiries as narrative, it is part of a literary world too. Such doubleness is the secret of history's fascination as an always changing, inventive endeavour. Yet it also explains why history has been a source of sometimes bitter disputes.
Ann Curthoys is Manning Clark Professor of History at the Australian National University.
John Docker is Adjunct Senior Research Fellow of the Australian National University's Humanities Research Centre.