Ebook: Truth in History and Other Essays

An introduction by one of Dunning's students, J.G. de Roulhac Hamilton, revivifies for the reader some of the qualities of Dunning, the teacher and human being, who inspired a whole school of historical writers. The volume collects in convenient form seventeen interpretative articles, critical essays, and reviews of books as a further monument to the man whose influence on the study of Reconstruction in American history and of political theory has made him significant in the group that established history and political science as scholarly professions.

The most noteworthy article is the title essay in which Dunning sounds a pertinent warning to scholars whose delight in destroying old errors and beliefs may make them exaggerate the importance of their new "truths." Years after the articles were first published, the essays for the most part still exhibit freshness and relevance to current problems.