Book Review:
The Landscape of History
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Summary
John Lewis Gaddis is one of the respected scholars in international relations and in his book
“The Landscape of History: How Historians Map the Past” he makes keen observations on
American’s security strategy, particularly during the cold war. In his book, Gaddis starts by
offering a warming welcome to the historical methodology. As Gaddis picks his pace in his book
he tackles several critical issues all related to historical methodology and objectivity in a very
witty manner.
Gaddis makes observations and claims that most historians are often reluctant to make their
methods more explicit because they fear that their methods might be out of place. Gaddis also
notes that it is the reluctance that makes historians appear to be a confused bunch of researchers
because people can’t really comprehend what historians do while in the field or in their study
tables. Instead of just going into details of how historians review the evidence and construct their
narratives, Lewis attempts to demonstrate how historical methodology is as valid as the scientific
methodologies. To demonstrate the legitimacy Gaddis makes a parallel between the
methodologies used by historians with those used by paleontologists, geologists, and
astronomists.
For Gaddis, he rejects the idea that legitimacy in the field of science can only be attained by
taking steps towards predictability. As Gaddis highlights many disciplines in the social and
political sciences still adhere to the reductionist models that were established back in the 19th
century but with the adoption of the evolutionary model by most of the scientists in the natural
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sciences, this triggered the revolutionary change. Some of the triggers to this change as Gaddis
points out were the advent of complexity and chaos theories which came to erode the
assumptions of the older scientific models.
Analysis
John Lewis Gaddis is an American born and this means he has a better feel of American history.
Gaddis schooled in America and he got his Ph.D. in 1968 from the University of Texas at Austin.
Gaddis has had the honor to serve as president of the Society for Historian of America Foreign
Relations. As a professor interested in history and foreign relations, it means he has acquired vast
knowledge of American history and the way different historians present their narratives and this
secures his authority when writing about American history.
As scholar John Lewis Gaddis is a master at using evidence to support his claims. To explore the
question of uncertainly in history Lewis uses both primary and secondary sources to extract
evidence. As Gaddis writes, “Historians can never actually rerun history any more than
astronomers, paleontologists, and geologists, and evolutionary biologists can rerun time.”
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the statement Gaddis is implying that history will always represent the past and no matter how
much we want to accept it as reality that can only be temporary thus scholars who want to
understand the past have to utilize both primary and secondary sources to support their claims.
Gaddis through his book sees the pursuit of history as more of a work in progress. One point that
Gaddis insists is that the task of historians is not simply to give answers to old or previous
questions but rather ask new questions and as such every recorded work in history makes a moral
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John Lewis Gaddis, The Landscape Of History Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002.
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judgment either implicitly or explicitly. So the issue then is not to avoid making judgments but
rather making them responsibly.
Bibliography
Gaddis, John Lewis. The Landscape Of History. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002.
