History Without Illusion

Learning to Remember Truthfully Without Erasing Pain

History Without Illusion is an honest, pastoral exploration of how memory shapes faith, identity, and hope. Rather than treating history as a collection of facts to defend or dismiss, Geoffrey Schmitt invites readers to remember truthfully—without erasing pain, denying complexity, or surrendering to nostalgia.

Through personal story, Scripture, poetry, and reflection, the book moves from childhood faith and family inheritance through loss, regret, culture, nationhood, and progress, finally arriving at a mature practice of “remembering forward.” Along the way, Schmitt shows how illusion quietly distorts memory—editing out discomfort, simplifying people, or protecting pride—while truth, though harder, opens the way to healing and wisdom.

This is not a book about winning arguments or rewriting the past. It is about learning to live with memory faithfully: honoring sacrifice without denying cost, loving institutions without blindness, embracing progress without forgetting what formed us. Written with humility and clarity, History Without Illusion offers a path toward gratitude without naivety, repentance without despair, and hope grounded in truth.