NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Bauer's book, was Re: Newton and Halley
From: Frank Reed
Date: 2007 Dec 02, 22:48 -0500
From: Frank Reed
Date: 2007 Dec 02, 22:48 -0500
Michael Daly writes: "This is entirely true, unfortunately. Many writers (not necessarily "serious" historians) simply repeat the same old saws and "facts" that everyone "knows". Hence the influence that Sobel has on everyone assuming that the chronometer is more important than lunars, or that the legends about Shovell (hanging a man for disputing the navigators' positions, having his ring stolen) etc, are true." Well, you seem aware, at least, that Sobel did not invent any of this story, but like many armchair revisionists, you also appear to assume that the whole Shovell story must be false. If detail A is really Z, then black must be white, heads must be tails, up must be down, and everything said to be true must be false. That's the risk of knee-jerk revisionism. And it's not what "serious historians" do either (actually, serious historians do this all the time, too, since the category is completely undefined --one person's 'serious historian' is frequently another's 'hack historian'). The real question is how do we KNOW that one detail is true and another false? How do we deal with a legend? -FER --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ To post to this group, send email to NavList@fer3.com To , send email to NavList-@fer3.com -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---