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 |
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Page 3
... scientific history, based on the rigorous investigation of primary sources, has been widely attacked. Increasing numbers of writers on the subject deny that there is any such thing as historical truth or objectivity — both concepts ...
... scientific history, based on the rigorous investigation of primary sources, has been widely attacked. Increasing numbers of writers on the subject deny that there is any such thing as historical truth or objectivity — both concepts ...
Page 4
... scientific approach to the past. David Harlan has even gone so far as to remark that "by the end of the 1980s most historians — even most working historians — had all but given up on the possibility of acquiring reliable, objective ...
... scientific approach to the past. David Harlan has even gone so far as to remark that "by the end of the 1980s most historians — even most working historians — had all but given up on the possibility of acquiring reliable, objective ...
Page 17
... scientific 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 ...
... scientific 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 ...
Page 18
... scientific history, began to seem more than a little shaky by the turn of the century, too. Many of the advocates of a scientific approach to history failed to practice what they preached. A. F. Pollard, founder of the Institute of ...
... scientific history, began to seem more than a little shaky by the turn of the century, too. Many of the advocates of a scientific approach to history failed to practice what they preached. A. F. Pollard, founder of the Institute of ...
Page 19
... scientific history had all too often failed to follow their own precepts did not stop historians before the First World War from proclaiming the virtues of the scientific approach; on the contrary, it merely spurred them to greater ...
... scientific history had all too often failed to follow their own precepts did not stop historians before the First World War from proclaiming the virtues of the scientific approach; on the contrary, it merely spurred them to greater ...
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 |
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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