Structure

A More Beautiful and Terrible History is divided and subdivided into several sections. In addition to a preface and an afterword, the book also includes an introduction before its nine main chapters. Furthermore, the introduction is given an additional heading: "The Histories We Get". This heading mirrors the overarching heading that is given to all nine chapters: “The Histories We Need.” These headings clearly indicate the book’s structure, as well as the structure of Theoharis’s argument. They make it obvious that she begins by outlining the national narrative with which most readers will be familiar in order to identify it consciously as a useful political construction before subverting it will the following nine chapters. Readers may note that the decision to include both a preface and an introduction is structurally unusual, as the two often serve similar purposes. However, Theoharis’s decision not to make...