Clio Among the Muses: Essays on History and the Humanities

History “stands on the shoulders of its companions in the humanities and social sciences,” writes historian Hoffer (The Historian’s Paradox ) in this brief but thought-provoking series of essays on the vigor and necessity of historical study. The human experience has always been enlivened and ennobled through combinations of endeavors like precedent-based law, tradition-centered religion, economics, and political science. Hoffer philosophically addresses these intricate and inextricable connections between history and its cohorts in an academic yet readable examination consisting of seven concise, unsentimental essays that use his “synechdochal method” of “using selected parts to represent the whole.” Hoffer discusses instances in which historians get their analyses wrong because of faulty methods, or reliance on limited foci, or biased assumptions, especially regarding biographical subjects. While the military history section is of great relevance to contemporary events, the literary section reverts to theory, describing the evolution of “novelistic history” through literature that allows experts to imagine unrecorded reactions to key events. Hoffer successfully argues that no matter the discipline, history remains vital, supported and enriched by these connections much as the mythological Clio was linked to each of her fellow Greek muses. (Dec.)