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Books > Humanities > History > Theory & methods > General
Neo-classical economics is frequently criticised for paying
inadequate attention to historical processes. However, it has
proved easier to make broad claims that history matters' than to
theorise with any depth about the appropriate role for history in
economic analysis.
In recent years historians in many different parts of the world have sought to transnationalize and globalize their perspectives on the past. Despite all these efforts to gain new global historical visions, however, the debates surrounding this movement have remained rather provincial in scope. Global History, Globally addresses this lacuna by surveying the state of global history in different world regions. Divided into three distinct but tightly interweaved sections, the book's chapters provide regional surveys of the practice of global history on all continents, review some of the research in four core fields of global history and consider a number of problems that global historians have contended with in their work. The authors hail from various world regions and are themselves leading global historians. Collectively, they provide an unprecedented survey of what today is the most dynamic field in the discipline of history. As one of the first books to systematically discuss the international dimensions of global historical scholarship and address a wealth of questions emanating from them, Global History, Globally is a must-read book for all students and scholars of global history.
Narrativism has made important contributions to the theory and philosophy of historiography but it is now time to move beyond it to postnarrativism. Kuukkanen shows how it is possible to reject the absolutist truth-functional evaluation of interpretations in historiography and yet accept that historiography can be evaluated by rational standards.
Migration is most concretely defined by the movement of human bodies, but it leaves indelible traces on everything from individual psychology to major social movements. Drawing on extensive field research, and with a special focus on Italy and the Netherlands, this interdisciplinary volume explores the interrelationship of migration and memory at scales both large and small, ranging across topics that include oral and visual forms of memory, archives, and artistic innovations. By engaging with the complex tensions between roots and routes, minds and bodies, The Mobility of Memory offers an incisive and empirically grounded perspective on a social phenomenon that continues to reshape both Europe and the world.
It's accepted by most scholars that Thomas Jefferson had a lengthy affair with his slave Sally Hemings and fathered at least one of her children. This conclusion is based on a 1998 DNA study published in Nature and on the work of historian Annette Gordon-Reed, assumed by many to be the last word on the subject. This book argues compellingly that the DNA evidence is inconclusive and that there are remarkable flaws in the leading historical scholarship purporting to show such a liaison. The author critically examines well-known books by Gordon-Reed, Fawn Brodie, and Andrew Burstein. Holowchak notes selective use of evidence, ungrounded speculation, tendentious psychologizing, and unpersuasive argumentation, among other defects in their work. He delves into what we know about Jefferson's character by showing that the historical facts do not suggest any romantic interest on Jefferson's part in his female slaves. He also points out that, though DNA analysis indicates the presence of a Y-chromosome from some Jefferson male in the Hemings family line, it is unwarranted to conclude that this must have come from Thomas Jefferson. Finally, he discusses Jefferson's racial attitudes and says that they argue against any liaison with Sally Hemings.
Is global violence on the decline? Scholars argue that Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker's proposal that violence has declined dramatically over time is flawed. This highly-publicized argument that human violence across the world has been dramatically abating continues to influence discourse among academics and the general public alike. In this provocative volume, a cast of eminent historians interrogate Pinker's thesis by exposing the realities of violence throughout human history. In doing so, they reveal the history of human violence to be richer, more thought-provoking, and considerably more complicated than Pinker claims. From the introduction: Not all of the scholars included in this volume agree on everything, but the overall verdict is that Pinker's thesis, for all the stimulus it may have given to discussions around violence, is seriously, if not fatally, flawed.The problems that come up time and again are the failure to genuinely engage with historical methodologies; the unquestioning use of dubious sources; the tendency to exaggerate the violence of the past in order to contrast it with the supposed peacefulness of the modern era; the creation of a number of straw men, which Pinker then goes on to debunk; and its extraordinarily Western-centric, not to say Whiggish, view of the world. Complex historical questions, as the essays in this volume clearly demonstrate, cannot be answered with any degree of certainty, and certainly not in a simplistic way. Our goal here is not to offer a final, definitive verdict on Pinker's work; it is, rather, to initiate an ongoing process of assessment that in the future will incorporate as much of the history profession as possible.
History helps us understand change, provides clues to our own identity, and hones our moral sense. But history is not a stand-alone discipline. Indeed, its own history is incomplete without recognition of its debt to its companions in the humane and social sciences. In Clio among the Muses, noted historiographer Peter Charles Hoffer relates the story of this remarkable collaboration. Hoffer traces history's complicated partnership with its coordinate disciplines of religion, philosophy, the social sciences, literature, biography, policy studies, and law. As in ancient days, when Clio was preeminent among the other eight muses, so today, the author argues that history can and should claim pride of place in the study of past human action and thought. Intimate and irreverent at times, Clio among the Muses synthesizes a remarkable array of information. Clear and concise in its review of the companionship between history and its coordinate disciplines, fair-minded in its assessment of the contributions of history to other disciplines and these disciplines' contributions to history, Clio among the Muses will capture the attention of everyone who cares about the study of history. For as the author demonstrates, the study of history is something unique, ennobling, and necessary. One can live without religion, philosophy and the rest. One cannot exist without history. Rigorously documented throughout, the book offers a unique perspective on the craft of history. Peter Charles Hoffer has taught history at Harvard, Ohio State, Notre Dame, Brooklyn College, and the University of Georgia since 1968, and specializes in historical methods, early American history, and legal history. He has authored or co-authored over three dozen books, and edited another twenty. Previous titles include The Historian's Paradox: The Study of History in Our Time (NYU Press, 2008).
The Realness of Things Past proposes a new paradigm of historical practice. It questions the way we conventionally historicize the experiences of non-modern peoples, western and non-western, and makes the case for an alternative. It shows how our standard analytical devices impose modern, dualist metaphysical conditions upon all non-modern realities, thereby authorizing us to align those realities with our own modern ontological commitments, fundamentally altering their contents in the process. The net result is a practice that homogenizes the past's many different ways of being human. To produce histories that are more ethically defensible, more philosophically robust, and more historically meaningful, we need to take an ontological turn in our practice. The book works to formulate a non-dualist historicism that will allow readers to analyse each past reality on its own ontological terms, as a more or less autonomous world unto itself. To make the case for this alternative paradigm, the book engages with currents of thought in many different intellectual provinces, from anthropology and postcolonial studies to the sociology of science and quantum physics. And to demonstrate how the new paradigm might work in practice, it uses classical Athens as its primary case study. The Realness of Things Past is divided into three parts. To highlight the limitations of conventional historicist analysis and the need for an alternative, Part I critically scrutinizes our standard modern accounts of "democratic Athens." Part II draws on a wide range of historical, ethnographic, and theoretical literatures to frame ethical and philosophical mandates for the proposed ontological turn. To illustrate the historical benefits of this alternative paradigm, Part III then shows how it allows us to produce an entirely new and more meaningful account of the Athenian politeia or "way of life." The book is expressly written to be accessible to a non-specialist, cross-disciplinary readership.
Featuring the cutting-edge interventions of nine leading scholars in Asia and Europe, this interdisciplinary volume showcases new comparative perspectives in the fields of literary, social, artistic, and economic history and re-examines the theoretical and methodological premises of comparative historical studies.
This book is open access and available on www.bloomsburycollections.com. It is funded by Knowledge Unlatched. In a unique approach to historical representations, the central question of this book is 'what is history?' By describing 'history' through its supplementary function to the field of history, rather than the ground of a study, this collection considers new insights into historical thinking and historiography across the humanities. It fosters engagement from around the disciplines in historical thinking and, from that, invites historians and philosophers of history to see clearly the impact of their work outside of their own specific fields, and encourages deep reflection on the role of historical production in society. As such, Theories of History opens up for the first time a truly cross-disciplinary dialogue on history and is a unique intervention in the study of historical representation. Essays in this volume discuss music history, linguistics, theater studies, paintings, film, archaeology and more. This book is essential reading for those interested in the practice and theories of history, philosophy, and the humanities more broadly. Readers of this volume are not only witness to, but also part of the creation of, radical new discourses in and ways of thinking about, doing and experiencing history.
With the end of the Cold War, the American political establishment perceived Islam as the new enemy. The 1993 explosion at the World Trade Center, the 1998 bombing of the American embassies in Africa, and the events of 9/11 - all culminated in substantiating this perception. The War on Terrorism has raised several complicated issues surrounding the relationship between the United States and Islam. With America's increasing involvement in the Middle East, it is imperative for Muslims to understand America; but at the same time, Americans must learn to understand Islam. The progress of civilization hangs on the ability for cooperation and understanding between these cultures. Although this challenge of removing the "clash" between these two cultures is indeed pressing, it is not new. Negative images of Islam have persisted in the United States throughout its history. This volume of "The Annals" reflects on how damaging images of Islam have endured in the United States and how Americans' perceptions and misconceptions about Islam is inexorably linked to United States' policy in the Middle East. The articles in this special issue will spark intriguing debate and discussion as well as shed light on the complex concerns engulfing Americans' ideas about Islam and Muslim states and how this relationship influences global politics. With the end of the Cold War, the American political establishment perceived Islam as the new enemy. The 1993 explosion at the World Trade Center, the 1998 bombing of the American embassies in Africa, and the events of 9/11 - all culminated in substantiating this perception. The War on Terrorism has raised several complicated issues surrounding the relationship between the United States and Islam. With America's increasing involvement in the Middle East, it is imperative for Muslims to understand America; but at the same time, Americans must learn to understand Islam. The progress of civilization hangs on the ability for cooperation and understanding between these cultures. Although this challenge of removing the "clash" between these two cultures is indeed pressing, it is not new. Negative images of Islam have persisted in the United States throughout its history. This volume of "The Annals" reflects on how damaging images of Islam have endured in the United States and how Americans' perceptions and misconceptions about Islam is inexorably linked to United States' policy in the Middle East. The articles in this special issue will spark intriguing debate and discussion as well as shed light on the complex concerns engulfing Americans' ideas about Islam and Muslim states and how this relationship influences global politics.
Angela Zusman offers an informative guidebook with step-by-step directions for planning and implementing intergenerational oral history projects, using youth to interview elders. An expert on these programs, Zusman uses her experiences and those of other oral historians to show how community projects are organized, youthful historians located and trained, interviews conducted, and the project archived for future community needs. Included are a variety of sample documents and case studies designed to ease the process for the uninitiated.
How can we take history seriously as real and relevant? Despite the hazards of politically dangerous or misleading accounts of the past, we live our lives in a great network of cooperation with other actors; past, present, and future. We study and reflect on the past as a way of exercising a responsibility for shared action. In each of the chapters of Full History Smith poses a key question about history as a concern for conscious participants in the sharing of action, starting with "What Is Historical Meaningfulness?" and ending with "How Can History Have an Aim?" Constructing new models of historical meaning while engaging critically with perspectives offered by Ranke, Dilthey, Rickert, Heidegger, Eliade, Sartre, Foucault, and Arendt, Smith develops a philosophical account of thinking about history that moves beyond postmodernist skepticism. Full History seeks to expand the cast of significant actors, establishing an inclusive version of the historical that recognizes large-scale cumulative actions but also encourages critical revision and expansion of any paradigm of shared action.
Is history factual, or just another form of fiction? Are there distinct boundaries between the two, or just extensive borderlands? How do novelists represent historians and history? The relationship between history and fiction has always been contentious and sometimes turbulent, not least because the two have traditionally been seen as mutually exclusive opposites. However, new hybrid forms of writing from historical fiction to docudramas to fictionalised biographies have led to the blurring of boundaries, and given rise to the claim that history itself is just another form of fiction. In his thought-provoking new book, Beverley Southgate untangles this knotty relationship, setting his discussion in a broad historical and philosophical context. Throughout, Southgate invokes a variety of writers to illuminate his arguments, from Dickens and Proust, through Virginia Woolf and Daphne du Maurier, to such contemporary novelists as Tim O Brien, Penelope Lively, and Graham Swift. Anyone interested in the many meeting points between history and fiction will find this an engaging, accessible and stimulating read.
What is-and what was-"the world"? Though often treated as interchangeable with the ongoing and inexorable progress of globalization, concepts of "world," "globe," or "earth" instead suggest something limited and absolute. This innovative and interdisciplinary volume concerns itself with this central paradox: that the complex, heterogeneous, and purportedly transhistorical dynamics of globalization have given rise to the idea and reality of a finite-and thus vulnerable-world. Through studies of illuminating historical moments that range from antiquity to the era of Google Earth, each contribution helps to trace the emergence of the world in multitudinous representations, practices, and human experiences.
Norma Thompson opens a new angle of political vision in this imaginative and engaging interpretation of Herodotus' History. She claims for the "father of history" a position in the canon of political thought, finding modern validity in his fundamental perceptions about the importance of stories to the coherence of political communities. Thompson arrives at a unique explanation for Herodotus' side-by-side placement of factual and fanciful historical stories. She contends that he recognized the central importance of compelling stories, even imaginary ones like the tale of Arion, the poet and singer who leaped into the sea to escape Corinthian pirates and was carried to safety on the back of a dolphin. Such stories can become the "facts" of a people's past and thereby the core of the political community. Herodotus understood that stories define and bind together one polity as distinct from others. Further, a polity evolves in reference to its own defining story. Thompson relates Herodotus' work to historical and cultural debate among such scholars as Martin Bernal, Francois Hartog, and Edward Said, and she invites philosophers, philologists, anthropologists, historiographers, and political theorists into the discussion.
This book is the first cognitive literary analysis in the field of medieval French literature. As such, it focuses on the question of audience in the Old French epic poems known as "chansons de geste." Bringing to bear evidence from historical, literary, and manuscript sources, from the perspective of cognitive theory, Leverage demonstrates that there were multiple, complex audiences of the poems, and that common to each was a more personal, engaged, emotive relationship with the poems than has been recognized previously. Central to the audience's experience of the poems and to the aesthetic of the genre, is memory, both in the sense of a cognitive process and as a theory that has occupied the interest of rhetoricians and philosophers from Antiquity to the present. The book is of interest to medievalists, cognitive theorists, and cognitive scientists working in memory-based text processing.
The origins of early German Romanticism and the philosophical contributions of the movement's most important philosopher.
This is an introduction to the most important theological work of the Middle Ages. In the intellectual tradition of the Christian faith, few thinkers have had a more profound effect upon both the nature of theology and the materials with which it deals than Thomas Aquinas. A knowledge, therefore, of his major work, the "Summa Theologiae", is necessary for the student of theology, let alone any who are concerned with the Western intellectual tradition, so pervasive is Aquinas' thought to the fabric of Western thought. This, together with the immensity, length, and difficulty of the Summa, make a Reader's Guide valuable, even crucial, to a student's first exposure to this work. To address the needs of undergraduates who attempt a reading of this work, Stephen Loughlin presents the basic principles that underlie the "Summa Theologiae" both as a whole and with respect to its three parts, and the varying treatises found within them. "Continuum Reader's Guides" are clear, concise and accessible introductions to key texts in literature and philosophy. Each book explores the themes, context, criticism and influence of key works, providing a practical introduction to close reading, guiding students towards a thorough understanding of the text. They provide an essential, up-to-date resource, ideal for undergraduate students.
Exam board: AQA Level: A-level Subject: History First teaching: September 2015 First exams: Summer 2017 Maximise your chance of coursework success; this AQA A-level History Workbook breaks the non-examined assessment down into manageable steps, builds the required skills and tracks students' progress at every stage. Based on analysis of real students' submissions and the challenges they faced, this coursework companion will: - Guide you step by step through the process, from choosing a topic to conducting research, constructing an argument and submitting the final work - Improve critical thinking, reading and writing skills with activities that involve finding, analysing and evaluating sources and interpretations, plus activities that help students answer the question effectively - Enable students to work independently, using the Workbook to structure their thinking, record their progress and review their coursework against model paragraphs and a self-assessment checklist - Ensure that you understand the demands of the specification, providing a simplified mark scheme and targeted advice from authors with first-hand experience of marking AQA A-level coursework - Boost confidence and performance not only in coursework but also exams, as students can apply the skills developed throughout the project to examination questions
This book offers the first account in English of the origin, meaning, and critical significance of Immanuel Kant's |
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