'Writing good history is a high-wire act of balance and grace. Historians scour their own societies for vestiges of past worlds, for cracks and fissures in the pavement of the present, and for the shimmers and hauntings of history in everyday action.
'In The Art of Time Travel, eminent historian and award-winning author Tom Griffiths explores the craft of discipline and imagination that is history. Through portraits of fifteen historians at work, including Inga Clendinnen, Judith Wright, Geoffrey Blainey and Henry Reynolds, he observes how a body of work is constructed out of a life-long dialogue between past evidence and present experience.
'Riveting, beautiful and elegantly written, this landmark book conjures fresh insights into the history of Australia and revitalises our sense of the historian’s craft – what Tom Griffiths calls “the art of time travel”.' (Publication summary)
'For Eric Rolls, historical writing needed to serve the future, writes Tom Griffiths'
'Even if The Art of Time Travel were not a generous, thoughtful, and perceptive book, its appearance would still be cause for celebration. A trade publisher has taken on a long book exploring general questions about the nature of historical thinking. More than a few readers of Australian Historical Studies will have sat through or taken part in panel discussions on ‘why history matters’; Griffiths and Black Inc. have had the confidence to trust that readers know history matters and will be interested in the questions it poses about time, change, and perspective.' (Introduction)
'Tom Griffiths explains that on a walking trip in France he was asked to nominate his favourite French historians. That later prompted him to think about his favourite Australian historians. In explaining his choice of 14 favourites, as he does here, he provides interesting reflections about the craft of history.' (Introduction)
'Tom Griffiths explains that on a walking trip in France he was asked to nominate his favourite French historians. That later prompted him to think about his favourite Australian historians. In explaining his choice of 14 favourites, as he does here, he provides interesting reflections about the craft of history.' (Introduction)
'Even if The Art of Time Travel were not a generous, thoughtful, and perceptive book, its appearance would still be cause for celebration. A trade publisher has taken on a long book exploring general questions about the nature of historical thinking. More than a few readers of Australian Historical Studies will have sat through or taken part in panel discussions on ‘why history matters’; Griffiths and Black Inc. have had the confidence to trust that readers know history matters and will be interested in the questions it poses about time, change, and perspective.' (Introduction)
