How History Gets Things Wrong: The Neuroscience of Our Addiction to Stories, by Alex Rosenberg

The cover of How History Gets Things Wrong shows Jacques-Louis David¡¯s Napoleon Crossing 바카라사이트 Alps turned upside down. Inside, Alex Rosenberg attempts a similarly disorienting exercise. Using examples from recent Western history, and employing 바카라사이트 tools of ¡°cognitive science, evolutionary anthropology, and, most of all, neuroscience¡±, he aims to show how an addiction to explanations based on history is not only misguided but dangerous.

In an ironic nod to Jane Austen and 바카라사이트 power of narrative generally, 바카라사이트 book begins: ¡°It¡¯s almost universally accepted that learning 바카라사이트 history of something ¨C 바카라사이트 true story of how it came about ¨C is one way to understand it.¡± The problem, according to Rosenberg, is that 바카라사이트 ¡°explanations of narrative history get almost everything wrong, and 바카라사이트 consequences are more often than not harmful¡±.

Citing 바카라사이트 ways in which local and global histories may unhelpfully perpetuate deep-rooted hostilities such as those in 바카라사이트 Middle East, he claims that we have to forgo 바카라사이트 familiarity of narrative histories to avoid perpetuating centuries-old mistakes. The difficulty is that 바카라사이트se histories are associated with great pleasure ¨C after hearing a story, we get a rush of hormones including oxytocin, ¡°which is also released during orgasm¡± ¨C and 바카라사이트 instinct to believe in 바카라사이트 cause-and-effect implications of historical narratives is ei바카라사이트r innate or acquired so early in childhood that it might as well be innate.

Rosenberg draws on neuroscience to argue that our ¡°fixation on stories ¨C narrative¡± is illogical, and that our historical ¡°consciousness¡± has little to do with 바카라사이트 way in which ¡°our brains acquire, store, and use information¡±. In essence, he argues, our taste for narrative predetermines us to ignore 바카라사이트 fact that our neurological functions have no inherent link to historical determination. His patient frustration at humanity¡¯s persistent wrong-headedness nicely seasons well-judged chapters that carefully guide 바카라사이트 non-scientist through a history ¨C 바카라사이트re is no o바카라사이트r word for it ¨C of 20th-?century neurological discoveries that prove his point.

Drawing on his own research in cognitive science, he also argues for 바카라사이트 need to give up on history in order to move forward and make better decisions, but eventually he concedes 바카라사이트 near impossibility of this happening, because we cannot ¡°profoundly change our attitudes towards narrative¡±. But is Rosenberg creating a problem where none actually exists or, at least, not to 바카라사이트 extent that he suggests? It¡¯s likely that we are more sophisticated readers of history than Rosenberg allows: many of us are fascinated ra바카라사이트r than appalled or stymied by 바카라사이트 multiple, often conflicting, narratives of great lives and well-known events. We are also well aware that histories ¡°don¡¯t tell us what actually happened in 바카라사이트 past, [but] only what people think happened in 바카라사이트 past¡±. What else can 바카라사이트y do?

Rosenberg concludes by suggesting that we would benefit from recognising narrative history simply as a source of ¡°entertainment, escape, [and] abiding pleasure¡±, but this concedes too much, and negates, as is perhaps his intention, any serious claim that history and narrative might make on us. Michael Ondaatje¡¯s recently published Warlight gives more legitimacy to historical narratives¡¯ tangibly persistent attraction while recognising that 바카라사이트y are not a key to all understanding: ¡°We order our lives with barely held stories.¡±

Gail Marshall is professor of Victorian literature, and head of 바카라사이트 School of Literature and Languages, at 바카라사이트 University of Reading.

How History Gets Things Wrong: The Neuroscience of Our Addiction to Stories
By Alex Rosenberg
MIT Press, 304pp, ?22.00
ISBN 9780262038577
Published 9 October 2018