Dead Certainties: Unwarranted Speculations -- Simon Schama

Like his <b>The Embarrassment of Riches</b> and the bestselling <b>Citizens</b>, Simon Schama's latest book is both history and literature of immense stylishness and ambition. But <b>Dead Certainties</b> goes beyond these more conventional histories to address the deeper enigmas that confront a student of the past. In order to do so, Schama reconstructs -- and at times reinvents -- two ambiguous deaths: the first, that of General James Wolfe at the battle of Quebec in 1759; the second, in 1849, that of George Parkman, an eccentric Boston brahmin whose murder by an impecunious Harvard professor in 1849 was a grisly reproach to the moral sanctity of his society. Out of these stories -- with all of their bizarre coincidences and contradictions -- Schama creates a dazzling and supremely vital work of historical imagination.<br><br><b>Author:</b> Simon Schama<br><b>Publisher:</b> Vintage<br><b>Published:</b> 06/02/1992<br><b>Pages:</b> 368<br><b>Binding Type:</b> Paperback<br><b>Weight:</b> 0.79lbs<br><b>Size:</b> 8.04h x 5.14w x 0.71d<br><b>ISBN:</b> 9780679736134<br><br><b>Review Citation(s): </b><br><i>Publishers Weekly</i> 05/11/1992<br><p><b>About the Author</b><br>Simon Schama is the prize-winning author of seven acclaimed books. An art critic and essayist <br>for <i>The New Yorker</i>, he also writes and presents documentaries for BBC television. He is University Professor of Art History and History at Columbia University and lives outside New York City.</p>