by Simon Schama
First published 1998
Simon Schama examines two deaths that became stories, then became history. The first death belongs to General James Wolfe, who fell on September 13, 1759, leading British forces to victory at Quebec on the Heights of Abraham. Schama traces how Wolfe died once in battle, then died again through Benjamin West's famous painting and historian Francis Parkman's 19th-century writings. The second death involves Parkman's own uncle, George Parkman of Harvard Medical College, who vanished in 1849 under suspicious circumstances. Colleagues whispered of murder. Schama uses these two incidents to examine how stories become history and how historians shape the past. He reveals the uncertain ground where speculation meets fact, where narrative craft meets scholarly method. The book illuminates the complex relationship between storytelling and historical truth.
Genres: 20th-century, 19th-century, academic, american-history
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: unreliable-narrator
Setting: Harvard Medical College, Quebec
Period: 1759, 1849
Paperback · Granta Books