The Uses and Abuses of History
E850546
The Uses and Abuses of History is a book by historian Margaret MacMillan that examines how historical narratives are constructed and how they can be responsibly used or dangerously misused in contemporary politics and public life.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| The Uses and Abuses of History canonical | 2 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T10223712 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: The Uses and Abuses of History Context triple: [Margaret MacMillan, notableWork, The Uses and Abuses of History]
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A.
The Politics of History
The Politics of History is a critical work of historiography by Howard Zinn that challenges traditional narratives and argues for a politically engaged, socially conscious approach to writing and teaching history.
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B.
The Meaning of History
The Meaning of History is a philosophical work by Russian religious thinker Nicolas Berdyaev that explores the spiritual and existential significance of historical events and humanity’s destiny.
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C.
The Writing of History
The Writing of History is a seminal work by Michel de Certeau that critically examines how historical narratives are constructed, emphasizing the interplay between power, discourse, and the practice of writing history.
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D.
Letters on the Study and Use of History
Letters on the Study and Use of History is an 18th-century series of essays by Henry St John, Viscount Bolingbroke, offering a philosophical and practical reflection on how history should be studied and applied to politics and moral life.
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E.
Not by Fact Alone: Essays on the Writing and Reading of History
Not by Fact Alone: Essays on the Writing and Reading of History is a collection of reflective essays by historian John Clive that explores how history is written, interpreted, and understood beyond mere factual narration.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: The Uses and Abuses of History Target entity description: The Uses and Abuses of History is a book by historian Margaret MacMillan that examines how historical narratives are constructed and how they can be responsibly used or dangerously misused in contemporary politics and public life.
-
A.
The Politics of History
The Politics of History is a critical work of historiography by Howard Zinn that challenges traditional narratives and argues for a politically engaged, socially conscious approach to writing and teaching history.
-
B.
The Meaning of History
The Meaning of History is a philosophical work by Russian religious thinker Nicolas Berdyaev that explores the spiritual and existential significance of historical events and humanity’s destiny.
-
C.
The Writing of History
The Writing of History is a seminal work by Michel de Certeau that critically examines how historical narratives are constructed, emphasizing the interplay between power, discourse, and the practice of writing history.
-
D.
Letters on the Study and Use of History
Letters on the Study and Use of History is an 18th-century series of essays by Henry St John, Viscount Bolingbroke, offering a philosophical and practical reflection on how history should be studied and applied to politics and moral life.
-
E.
Not by Fact Alone: Essays on the Writing and Reading of History
Not by Fact Alone: Essays on the Writing and Reading of History is a collection of reflective essays by historian John Clive that explores how history is written, interpreted, and understood beyond mere factual narration.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (46)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf | book ⓘ |
| advocatesFor |
awareness of historians' biases
ⓘ
critical thinking about historical claims ⓘ responsible public use of historical arguments ⓘ |
| author | Margaret MacMillan ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin | Canada ⓘ |
| discusses |
collective memory
ⓘ
commemoration and monuments ⓘ history education ⓘ myth-making about the past ⓘ propaganda ⓘ selective memory of nations ⓘ use of historical analogies in foreign policy ⓘ |
| emphasizes |
complexity of historical causation
ⓘ
danger of oversimplified historical lessons ⓘ importance of context in interpreting history ⓘ |
| genre |
historiography
ⓘ
history ⓘ |
| hasPerspective |
advocates nuanced understanding of the past
ⓘ
critical of instrumental use of history ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| mainTheme |
how history can be dangerously misused
ⓘ
how history can be responsibly used ⓘ limits of historical knowledge ⓘ politicization of the past ⓘ role of historians in society ⓘ |
| notableFor | accessible discussion of historiography for a broad audience ⓘ |
| relatedConcept |
collective memory studies
ⓘ
historical revisionism ⓘ public history debates ⓘ |
| relatedWork | Paris 1919: Six Months That Changed the World ⓘ |
| subject |
construction of historical narratives
ⓘ
ethics of history ⓘ historical memory ⓘ identity politics ⓘ misuse of history in politics ⓘ nationalism ⓘ public history ⓘ use of history in public life ⓘ |
| targetAudience |
general readers
ⓘ
policy makers ⓘ political leaders ⓘ students of history ⓘ |
| warnsAgainst |
nationalist distortions of the past
ⓘ
treating history as a set of fixed lessons ⓘ using history to justify present-day policies uncritically ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: The Uses and Abuses of History Description of subject: The Uses and Abuses of History is a book by historian Margaret MacMillan that examines how historical narratives are constructed and how they can be responsibly used or dangerously misused in contemporary politics and public life.
Referenced by (2)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
History’s People: Personalities and the Past
→
relatedWorkByAuthor
→
The Uses and Abuses of History
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