Synopses & Reviews
This challenging and original book illuminates what Felipe Fernández-Armesto considers to be the unique predicament of our times: That our society has come to lose faith and interest in the reality and search for truth. We need, he argues, a new way of understanding and identifying truth which can survive in the postmodern era. By examining how people throughout history and across the world have tried to distinguish truth from falsehood, Fernández-Armesto places our current crisis in context, and offers a fresh approach to tackling the quest for truth.
Review
"[Fernandez-Armesto's] interesting and challenging book takes us on a whirlwind guided tour of human thought."
--The New York Times Book Review"In this energetic study...the author reaches beyond academe with crisp prose complemented by numerous whisical touches . . . Truth is a beacon of lucidity."--Boston Globe
"Although serious in his intentions, Fernandez-Armesto writes with a light touch, ranging widely over the fields of anthropology, history and philosophy...very timely and eminently readable."--Los Angeles Times
"Sharp and interesting . . . [The author is] bound to engage speicalists in the fields he sprints through."--New Statesman
Synopsis
Written by a renowned Oxford historian, this fascinating volume presents a global history of truth. Sharp and authoritative,
Truth manages to touch every period of human experience; it leaps from truth-telling technologies of "primitive" societies to the private mental worlds of great philosophers; from spiritualism to science and from New York to New Guinea. In clear, lucid prose, this little book takes on an enormous subject and makes it understandable to anyone.
About the Author
Felipe Fernandez-Armesto has been a member of the Modern History Faculty of Oxford University since 1983. His many previous works include
Columbus and
Millennium.