In Defence of History“A lucid, muscular, and often sly reflection” on the worth and purpose of historical scholarship by the award-winning author of The Third Reich Trilogy (Kirkus). In this volume, the renowned historian Richard J. Evans offers a fervent and deeply insightful defense of his craft and its importance to civilization. At a time when fact and historical truth are under unprecedented assault, Evans shows us why history is necessary. Taking us into the historians’ workshop, he offers a firsthand look at how good history gets written. In staunch opposition to the wilder claims of postmodern historians, Evans thoroughly dismantles the notion that a realistic grasp of history is impossible to attain. He then goes on to explain the deadly political dangers of losing a historical perspective on the way we live our lives. In the tradition of E.H. Carr’s What Is History? and G.R. Elton’s The Practice of History, Evans’ In Defense of History delivers “a model of lucid and intelligent historiographical analysis” (The Guardian, UK). |
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Page 23
... documents, and that once the historian has unearthed it, no one ever need perform the same operation again. Nothing has outdated the views not only of Elton, but even of Carr, more obviously than the arrival in the 1980s of ...
... documents, and that once the historian has unearthed it, no one ever need perform the same operation again. Nothing has outdated the views not only of Elton, but even of Carr, more obviously than the arrival in the 1980s of ...
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... documents on the basis of their internal consistency , and their consistency with other documents originating at the same period . They had to stick to ' primary sources ' , eyewitness reports and what Ranke called the ' purest , most ...
... documents on the basis of their internal consistency , and their consistency with other documents originating at the same period . They had to stick to ' primary sources ' , eyewitness reports and what Ranke called the ' purest , most ...
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... documents and are expected to comment on them in terms of their internal consistency, their relationship to other documents on the same subject, their reliability and their usefulness as a source. Questions of authenticity and ...
... documents and are expected to comment on them in terms of their internal consistency, their relationship to other documents on the same subject, their reliability and their usefulness as a source. Questions of authenticity and ...
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... documents , lay the facts , waiting to be discovered by historians , just as the stars shone out there in the heavens , waiting to be discovered by astronomers ; all the historian had to do was apply the proper scientific method ...
... documents , lay the facts , waiting to be discovered by historians , just as the stars shone out there in the heavens , waiting to be discovered by astronomers ; all the historian had to do was apply the proper scientific method ...
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... documents are rare , we can now see that in a generation or two it will be time to stop . ' Similar beliefs were indeed common in the natural sciences : when the German physicist Max Planck took up his studies in the 1870s , for example ...
... documents are rare , we can now see that in a generation or two it will be time to stop . ' Similar beliefs were indeed common in the natural sciences : when the German physicist Max Planck took up his studies in the 1870s , for example ...
Contents
22 | |
Society and the Individual | |
Objectivity and its Limits | |
Afterword | |
Further Reading | |
Index | |
About the Author | |
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Abraham academic American Historical Review Appleby approach argued argument Arthur Marwick belief Britain British Cambridge Carr's century claim concept contemporary critics critique cultural David debate Defence of History Derrida discipline discourse documents E. H. Carr E. P. Thompson Easthope economic history England Evans evidence example fact Frank Ankersmit French G. M. Trevelyan Geoffrey Elton German Hayden White historians historical knowledge historical profession historical scholarship historical writing Historiography History and Post-Modernism History London Holocaust Holocaust denial Hugh Trevor-Roper Hunt and Jacob ibid ideas ideology Intellectual History Intelligent Person's Guide interpretation J. H. Hexter Keith Jenkins kind LaCapra language Lawrence Stone linguistic turn literary Marxist meaning modern moral Namier narrative Noble Dream Novick objectivity Oxford past Patrick Joyce political postmodernism postmodernist present Purkiss quoted reality Revolution scientific sense Social History social sciences society sources thought Trevelyan Vincent written Zeldin