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anigbrowltoday at 9:40 PM3 repliesview on HN

The same sort of arguments are playing out in the US, albeit on a shorter timescale. I couldn't say when it started, but it's extremely depressing that the history section in most general bookstores is just a locus for narrative warfare rather than scholarship.

Of course, this phenomenon is by no means unique to these two countries. I know a Japanese author who has a small but dedicated following for his argument that nuclear weapons don't exist: https://books.google.com/books/about/Death_Object.html?id=Mw...


Replies

talon8635today at 10:32 PM

I’ve read plenty of good history/biography publishing in the past 50 years right up to last year. I’m not sure I understand your claim.

Narrative warfare… I guess the question is, what isn’t “narrative warfare”?

AlotOfReadingtoday at 10:01 PM

I get what you mean that pop hist. books aren't academic, but "narrative warfare" describes a huge proportion of historical scholarship. Whether or not you agree with it, that's the whole point of Metahistory and the linguistic turn.

Apocryphontoday at 10:37 PM

What's his explanation for what happened? iirc, immediately after Hiroshima the survivors had thought the Allies had used some sort of fuel bomb.