SOURCE: Cuff, Robert. Review of That Noble Dream, by Peter Novick. Canadian Journal of History 25, no. 1 (April 1990): 143-45.

In the following review, Cuff argues that That Noble Dream draws on a wealth of research to provide “an outstanding book of great value” for historians and readers alike.

Can historians be objective in their work? Peter Novick uses impressive research in manuscript collections and published historical scholarship, as well as wide reading in other academic disciplines, to describe and analyse how notables within the U.S. historical profession have dealt with this question over the past one hundred years. The result is an outstanding book of great value, especially to graduate students and university teachers in the field of U.S. history.

That Noble Dream provides at once a social and intellectual history of the American historical profession; a discerning guide to several of its major historiographical controversies; and...