Hot Plowshares: A Novel
Albion Winegar Tourgée
Paperback
(Forgotten Books, June 26, 2012)
Fiction is the handmaid of Truth. Imagination is almost always the forerunner of fact. History gives only the outlines of the worlds life. It tells us what was done, who did it, when and where, and, in a general way, the reason why it was done. It traces the movements of races, nations and parties. It is concei-ned chiefly with nouns of multitude, taking no heed of the individual save when he becomes connected with the general result in the relation of cause and effect. Rulers and leaders are noted as types of great events; the man the human atom is only an incident. History tells what the army did, and gives the general a place in its pages simply because he commanded the army. Of the motives that inspire the rank and file it takes as little note as of their individual acts. Biography both supplements and obscures History supplements by showing the relation of great events to a particular individual, and obscures by magnifying his causative relation to them. If we accepted the verdict of the most conscientious biographer as veritable truth, we should soon be hopelessly astray. Biography covers the whole area of History with private landmarks. Every great event is pre-empted by a thousand claimants, each of whom asserts his individual right to be considered its originator. The rivalry of the dead is even worse than that of the living. Men who wrought and fought side by side while alive against some common enemy, are no sooner dead than they are pitted against each other in a never-ending struggle for the laurels of the victory they have jointly won.(Typographical errors above are due to OCR software and don't occur in the book.)About the Publisher Forgotten Books is a publisher of historical writings, such as: Philosophy, Classics, Science, Religion, History, Folklore and Mythology.Forgotten Books' Classic Reprint Series utilizes the latest technology to regenerate facsimiles of