"Unfortunately, Hoffer's rendering of the profession, dividing it between the older historians who relied on 'comforting falsehoods' and his own generation which emphasized discomforting truths, is indicative of the impasse in contemporary historical scholarship to which Wood refers. Perhaps the solution is not for professional historical societies to gain more courage in extending their outrage over oppression and injustice to professional malfeasance. The way forward may be for historians to admit that the failings of America are just as complicated and deserve as much nuance as the nation's accomplishments. And to deflate the self-righteousness that afflicts the profession, the leaders of the OAH might reconsider the priorities that led them to move their convention to San Jose."
In Christianity Today, D. G. Hart reviews Peter Charles Hoffer's Past Imperfect.
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