The Best Way to Learn History is to Read Fiction
The irony of facts becoming more real through made-up stories
“There is nothing new in the world except the history you do not know.” — Harry S. Truman
Why read historical fiction?
A former book club member HATED it when the group read historical fiction. She was adamant that reading novels about actual historical events was a waste of time. All those conversations in the book were made up because no one alive now could possibly know what had been said between characters in a previous era.
Historical fiction is just FICTION, she declared.
I adamantly disagreed.
“Writers do tons of research before crafting a historical novel, often accessing actual journals, letters, and newspaper articles of the time. They understand the prominent players of the period. They know about the dialect, the costumes, the living conditions, the political situations, and the accoutrements of life when they write their novel…
