In Defense of HistoryA master practitioner gives us an entertaining tour of the historian's workshop and a spirited defense of the search for historical truth. E. H. Carr's What Is History?, a classic introduction to the field, may now give way to a worthy successor. In his compact, intriguing survey, Richard J. Evans shows us how historians manage to extract meaning from the recalcitrant past. To materials that are frustratingly meager, or overwhelmingly profuse, they bring an array of tools that range from agreed-upon rules of documentation and powerful computer models to the skilled investigator's sudden insight, all employed with the aim of reconstructing a verifiable, usable past. Evans defends this commitment to historical knowledge from the attacks of postmodernist critics who see all judgments as subjective. Evans brings "a remarkable range, a nose for the archives, a taste for controversy, and a fluent pen" (The New Republic) to this splendid work. "Essential reading for coming generations."-Keith Thomas |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 47
Page 15
... European states of his day as "spiritual substances . . . thoughts of God."s This distanced him from the Prussian school of German historians, from nationalists such as Treitschke, who condemned his impartiality and regretted his ...
... European states of his day as "spiritual substances . . . thoughts of God."s This distanced him from the Prussian school of German historians, from nationalists such as Treitschke, who condemned his impartiality and regretted his ...
Page 16
... Europe. Only then, by gathering, criticizing, and verifying all the available sources, could they put themselves in a position to reconstruct the past accurately. The application of philological techniques to historical sources was a ...
... Europe. Only then, by gathering, criticizing, and verifying all the available sources, could they put themselves in a position to reconstruct the past accurately. The application of philological techniques to historical sources was a ...
Page 18
... European society was not only vastly more populous than before, not only produced many more documents, reflecting both the increase of literacy and the rapidly increasing functions of the state, but also produced new kinds of sources ...
... European society was not only vastly more populous than before, not only produced many more documents, reflecting both the increase of literacy and the rapidly increasing functions of the state, but also produced new kinds of sources ...
Page 19
... European states, documents which themselves gave a deliberate impression of neutrality and value-free reporting. As John Pemble has pointed out, "to the next generation Ranke was not Rankean enough." His Venetian sources were partial ...
... European states, documents which themselves gave a deliberate impression of neutrality and value-free reporting. As John Pemble has pointed out, "to the next generation Ranke was not Rankean enough." His Venetian sources were partial ...
Page 22
... European countries, too, historians rejected the universalizing tendencies of both Enlightenment writers such as Voltaire and Gibbon and Romantics such as Ranke. Popular, nationalist history had reached its apogee in Britain with ...
... European countries, too, historians rejected the universalizing tendencies of both Enlightenment writers such as Voltaire and Gibbon and Romantics such as Ranke. Popular, nationalist history had reached its apogee in Britain with ...
Contents
13 | |
History Science and Morality | 39 |
Historians and Their Facts | 65 |
Sources and Discourses | 89 |
Causation in History | 111 |
Society and the Individual | 139 |
Knowledge and Power | 165 |
Objectivity and Its Limits | 193 |
Notes | 221 |
Further Reading | 253 |
Index | 273 |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
Abraham American historian American Historical Review Ankersmit Annales school Appleby approach argued argument Arthur Marwick belief Britain British Cambridge Carr's causes claim concept contemporary course critics critique cultural debate declared Deconstructing discipline discourse documents Dominick LaCapra E. H. Carr England English European evidence example Frank Ankersmit French Geoffrey Elton Hayden White historians historical fact historical knowledge historical profession historical research historical scholarship Historiography History and Post-Modernism History London Holocaust denial human Ibid ideas ideology Intellectual History interpretation Journal Joyce Keith Jenkins kind LaCapra language Lawrence Stone linguistic turn literary Marxist material meaning methods modern moral Moreover Munslow Namier narrative Novick objective Oxford past perspective postmodernism postmodernist practice present Purkiss R. G. Collingwood Revolution rians scientific sense Sir Geoffrey Elton Social History social sciences society sources theory things thought tion torians torical tory traditional truth written