Fictions of History offers a new definition of the term ""fictions."" A fiction is not merely the imaginative literature we treasure in works of novelists, dramatists, and poets. It is a powerful, driving idea that enters the life of an individual, the course a whole society travels, and the stories historians tell about the human past. In many dimensions, fictions affect every person on planet Earth. We all live lives based on fictions.Frances Richardson Keller chooses fascinating examples