Historians' Fallacies by David Hackett Fischer
Published 1970 · 338 pages · 145,000 words · about 12 hours at an average pace · Essays & Criticism
How hard is Historians' Fallacies to read?
Historians' Fallacies scores 56 out of 100 for difficulty on ReadingRate, making it quite demanding. The score is a weighted composite of nine measures: four of how hard the prose is to parse, five of how hard the meaning is to extract.
- Vocabulary: 56 out of 100
- Precise logical and philosophical vocabulary alongside standard historical terminology.
- Sentence structure: 54 out of 100
- Abstraction: 68 out of 100
- Abstract logical categories are illustrated with named historical examples.
- Information density: 76 out of 100
- Over a hundred fallacies catalogued with examples—high density throughout.
- Narrative indirection: 12 out of 100
- Each entry presents its fallacy directly with illustrative examples.
- Symbolic density: 100 out of 100
- Analytical prose without figurative embellishment.
- Ironic distance: 20 out of 100
- Fischer's wit in naming and illustrating colleagues' errors gives the book its distinctive tone.
- Resolution withholding: 100 out of 100
- Each fallacy is clearly identified and the correct alternative implied.
- Structural complexity: 38 out of 100
- Taxonomic organization across many categories with cross-references between entries.
How Historians' Fallacies is regarded
Historians' Fallacies holds a literary regard score of 80 out of 100, weighing its place in the canon, its critical reception, its influence on other writers, and the standing of its author. Regard is measured separately from difficulty: a demanding book is not necessarily an admired one.