Pseudo-history, and related issues

[Narukami]

Cartledge seems to be unaware of this. There are only two possibilities: either he does not know the most basic theoretical concepts of his discipline (which I find hard to believe: he is a professor in Cambridge), or he is not looking for the truth and instead tries to use history for propaganda. As it happens, he explicitly writes that his book has a lot to do with The Defense Of The West Against Islam - which I take as a confession of the second option. He has gone too far to propagate his view: he has been adviser of Tom Holland's book Persian Fire, which is inspired by Cartledge's nineteenth-century vision, and proceeded to write a review (The Independent, September 2, 2005.), in which he praised Holland. Essentially, Cartledge is his own applause generator.

Cartledge may indeed be a propagandist on this issue, but if so then in a minor key. For a true propagandist one need but look at David Victor Hanson and his writings about the Greco-Persian wars, particularly the essays he wrote in support of the film 300. Hanson is considered a "serious" historian. :?

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Narukami