Introducing a (surprisingly) new approach to writing history
The Reconstructing History series focuses on telling in detail what happened at a given time and place. The aim of each book is to provide the student/interested reader with a solid understanding of events, contexts, and motivations of historical actors that will serve as a foundation for further study. The "reconstructing" concept grew out of frustration with standard histories in which authors limit their focus (often with a political purpose) and provide scant documentation of where they got their information.
The books in this series are not introductions, but in-depth explorations of their subject areas that build historical understanding from the ground up - generating a picture of historical eras from a rigorous journey through the individual events that occurred in them, and focused on the people who created them. It is less about telling stories or analyzing trends than providing a rigorous report of what the available evidence says happened.
For further information, click on the e-mail link below.
All items are printed on demand and shipped when ready. Delivery is usually within 2 or 3 weeks.
The author of the series is Douglas Allen, who has had a varied career that includes two Masters degrees, one in Choral Music from the University of Southern California, and another in History from California State University, Hayward (now CSU East Bay). His working years have included stints in banking, information technology, and high school teaching. In retirement he leveraged his knowledge of historical research to write a biography/history/genealogy of the first member of the Allen family to immigrate to America: Reconstructing William Allen - 1711-1799, which has received a warm welcome from both relatives and genealogical researchers since its publication 15 years ago.
He later began a study of ancient Greece (Hellas) in which he searched for a book that would integrate all the various aspects of that society: wars (of course), politics, philosophy, art, architecture, drama, etc. To his surprise, no such book existed. Even going back into the 19th century, when expansive, multi-volume works were written about ancient Greece, no one had the vision to pull together all the strands of that society to give a full, rich picture of the people who developed the democratic, intellectual, and artistic institutions that are the foundation of Western civilization. Given this gap in the historical literature, he decided to write the missing book himself. That work is offered here: Reconstructing Ancient Athens. Having assembled all the various strands of Classical Greece into one "grand narrative", he is now working on a series of "special subjects" that explore in greater detail the major contributions of this society to our modern world.
For more information, email: dallen@reconstructinghistory.net