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 43
Page 7
... methods of source criticism associated with the name of the great German historian Leopold von Ranke in the nineteenth century, and moving on through economics, sociology, anthropology, statistics, geography, psychology, and other alien ...
... methods of source criticism associated with the name of the great German historian Leopold von Ranke in the nineteenth century, and moving on through economics, sociology, anthropology, statistics, geography, psychology, and other alien ...
Page 14
... methods he had learned as a philologist to the study of historical texts in order to make such inaccuracy impossible in the future. Ranke s contribution to historical scholarship was threefold. First, he helped establish history as a ...
... methods he had learned as a philologist to the study of historical texts in order to make such inaccuracy impossible in the future. Ranke s contribution to historical scholarship was threefold. First, he helped establish history as a ...
Page 15
... methods that had recently been developed by philologists in the study of ancient and medieval literature to determine whether a text, say, of a Shakespeare play or of a medieval legend like the Nibelnngenlied was true or corrupted by ...
... methods that had recently been developed by philologists in the study of ancient and medieval literature to determine whether a text, say, of a Shakespeare play or of a medieval legend like the Nibelnngenlied was true or corrupted by ...
Page 16
... method all the sources relating to the events in which they were interested. They should not be content, as, for example, Gibbon had been, to rely on printed documents and chronicles generally available in libraries. They had instead to ...
... method all the sources relating to the events in which they were interested. They should not be content, as, for example, Gibbon had been, to rely on printed documents and chronicles generally available in libraries. They had instead to ...
Page 17
... method point up the fact that when source criticism was introduced into historical study, it, too, was regarded as a "scientific" technique. Its use legitimated history as an independent profession, and those historians in other ...
... method point up the fact that when source criticism was introduced into historical study, it, too, was regarded as a "scientific" technique. Its use legitimated history as an independent profession, and those historians in other ...
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