Not Bunk
Why Study History? Reflecting on
the Importance of the Past
by John Fea
Baker Academic, 2013
(191 pages, $19.99, paperback)
reviewed by Graeme Hunter
Christian Historian John Fea is candid about the ambitions of his book. He wants "to blend the theoretical and the practical in jargon-free, easily accessible prose" in order to "win some converts" to the pursuit of the study of history. Why Study History is therefore a timely book. Enrollments in departments of history, and in other disciplines in the humanities, are in steep decline across North America. Students are deserting subjects they know to be interesting and entering others they hope will be marketable. Fea's book is therefore likely to interest not only freshmen considering the study of history, but also parents, who may be wondering about the wisdom of subsidizing such a choice.
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Graeme Hunter is a contributing editor to Touchstone and Research Professor of Philosophy at Dominican University College in Ottawa. He is the author of Radical Protestantism in Spinoza's Thought (Ashgate).
more on history from the online archives
31.1—January/February 2018
on Ragnarök, an Extreme Weather Event & the Paths to Conversion by Timothy J. Burbery
15.6—July/August 2002
Things Hidden Since the Beginning of the World
The Shape of Divine Providence & Human History by James Hitchcock
14.6—July/August 2001
The Transformed Relics of the Fall
on the Fulfillment of History in Christ by Patrick Henry Reardon
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more from the online archives
31.5—September/October 2018
The Secular State Without the Decalogue by James M. Kushiner
21.1—January/February 2008
John Chrysostom’s Discovery of the Blessings & Mysteries of Marriage by Mike Aquilina
