The Coherent Past: A Guide to Truth in a 'Post-Truth World'

In 1943 George Orwell feared that objective truth might be 'fading out of this world'. Seventy years later we are being told that we live in a 'post-truth world'. We are bombarded by forms of propaganda and manipulation of facts, information overload, fundamentalism, postmodernist relativism, confirmation bias and the phenomenon of 'fake news'. Increasingly polarised mindsets often result in a retreat from reason and even scientific facts.

The Coherent Past demonstrates that finding the best way to make sense of history also equips us with the analytical tools needed in this environment. The book provides a unique analysis of the philosophical underpinnings of historical truth which can also help us to make senses of what can be a very confusing contemporary world.

Contents

• Acknowledgements
• Preface
• Chapter 1 – Introduction
• Chapter 2 – Troubles with Truth in a Climate of Confusion
• Chapter 3 – Explaining and Justifying the Framework: a rationale for historical judgement
• Chapter 4 – Historical Arbitration in a Sceptical Environment
• Chapter 5 – Multiple Perspectives but not Multiple Realities: a critique of relativism and reflection on different historical approaches
• Chapter 6 – The Scope, Scale and Form of History
• Chapter 7 – Finding the Most Coherent Way to Represent a Politicised Past
• Chapter 8 – Avoiding the ‘Empathy Bypass’
• Chapter 9 – Conclusion
• Notes
• Glossary
• Bibliography
• About the Author

Reviews

Teaching History Volume 53 No. 1 – Journal of the History Teachers' Association of NSW – March 2019:

[The Coherent Past] presents a path by which we might navigate an intellectual landscape in an age of post-postmodernism.

Green reaffirms the importance (and practicality) of the discipline of history.

Written by a former teacher of History Extension, Green's book offers some useful material for a senior classroom ... Green is offering an updated form of empiricist thinking for a post-postmodern world, which means it might prove useful for those teachers and students who wish to update or move beyond Richard Evans' 1997 (and History Extension staple), In Defence of History.

About the Author

Stephen Green was born in London in 1952 and grew up in a small village in South Wales. He studied at Edinburgh University where he completed a MA (Hons) in Mental Philosophy in 1975. When his family moved to Australia he decided to join them, taking the overland route in a Kombi van with two friends. He has had a variety of jobs, including taxi driving, working on a prawn boat, labouring and fruit picking before completing a Diploma of Education. He taught Ancient and Modern History along with some other subjects in NSW high schools for 30 years. He lives with his wife Janette near Wollongong and has four grown up children.