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Books > History > Theory & methods > General
William H. McNeill is known for his ability to portray the grand
sweep of history. Now two of his popular books and an essay
previously unavailable in book form are brought together in this
new paperback edition. In The Human Condition McNeill provides a
provocative interpretation of history as a competition of
parasites, both biological and human. In The Great Frontier he
questions the notion of "frontier freedom" through an examination
of European expansion. The concluding essay speculates on the role
of catastrophe in our lives. About The Human Condition: "A
remarkable tour de force . . . . An elegant, intelligent and
scholarly essay."--J. H. Hexter, The New York Times Book Review "A
brilliant new interpretation of world history."--David Graber, The
Los Angeles Times Book Review About The Great Frontier: There is
virtually no one in the profession who can match McNeill as a
synthesizer--or, for that matter, as an interdisciplinary
historian. . . . There is more insight in this volume than in
others of double or triple the length."--David Courtwright, Journal
of Interdisciplinary History
Rooted in the day-to-day experience of teaching and written for
those without specialist technical knowledge, this is a new edition
of the go-to guide to using digital tools and resources in the
humanities classroom. In response to the rapidly changing nature of
the field, this new edition has been updated throughout and now
features: - A brand-new Preface accounting for new developments in
the broader field of DH pedagogy - New chapters on 'Collaborating'
and on 'Teaching in a Digital Classroom' - New sections on
collaborating with other teachers; teaching students with learning
differences; explaining the benefits of digital pedagogy to your
students; and advising graduate students about the technologies
they need to master - New 'advanced activities' and 'advanced
assignment' sections (including bots, vlogging, crowd-sourcing,
digital storytelling, web scraping, critical making, automatic text
generation, and digital media art) - Expanded chapter
bibliographies and over two dozen tables offering practical advice
on choosing software programs Accompanied by a streamlined
companion website, which has been entirely redesigned to answer
commonly asked questions quickly and clearly, this is essential
reading for anyone looking to incorporate digital tools and
resources into their daily teaching.
Local and family historians are often afraid to use numerical data
(Statistics) in their research and writing. Yet numbers are an
essential part of much historical work, obviously in population
history but also in local studies of agriculture, industry and
social history. Counting People shows how amateur historians can
use computers with appropriate programs to provide numerical
illustrations of various historical topics as well as easing their
researches. A final chapter covers research and publishing in local
history. The Bibliography provides advice on local historical
studies in England and Wales and a full list of sources for
population history in England and Wales as well as guidance on the
use of computers in local studies.
Prompted by the 'linguistic turn' of the late 20th century,
intellectual and conceptual historians continue to devote a great
deal of attention to the study of concepts in history. This
innovative and interdisciplinary volume builds on such scholarship
by providing a new history of the term 'economy'. Starting from the
Greek idea of the law of the household, Luigi Alonzi traces the
different meanings assumed by the word 'economy' during the middle
ages and early modern era, highlighting the semantic richness of
the word and its uses in various political and cultural contexts.
Notably, there is a particular focus on the so-called Oeconomica
literature, tracking the reception of works by Plato, Aristotle,
the 'pseudo' Aristotle and Xenophon in the Italian and France
Renaissance. This tradition was incredibly influential in civic
humanism and in texts devoted to power and command and thus
affected later debates on Natural Law and the development of new
scientific disciplines in the 17th and 18th centuries. In exploring
this, the analysis of the function of translations in the
transmission and transformation of meanings becomes central.
'Economy' in European History shines much-needed light on an
important challenge that many historians repeatedly face: the fact
that words can, and do, change over time. It will thus be a vital
resource for all scholars of early modern and European economic
history.
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Fall of the Roman Republic
(Paperback, Revised)
Plutarch; Edited by Robin Seager; Introduction by Robin Seager; Revised by Robin Seager; Translated by Rex Warner
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Dramatic artist, natural scientist and philosopher, Plutarch is
widely regarded as the most significant historian of his era,
writing sharp and succinct accounts of the greatest politicians and
statesman of the classical period. Taken from the Lives, a series
of biographies spanning the Graeco-Roman age, this collection
illuminates the twilight of the old Roman Republic from 157-43 bc.
Whether describing the would-be dictators Marius and Sulla, the
battle between Crassus and Spartacus, the death of political
idealist Crato, Julius Caesar's harrowing triumph in Gaul or the
eloquent oratory of Cicero, all offer a fascinating insight into an
empire wracked by political divisions. Deeply influential on
Shakespeare and many other later writers, they continue to
fascinate today with their exploration of corruption, decadence and
the struggle for ultimate power.
Orientalism, Philology, and the Illegibility of the Modern World
examines the philology of orientalism. It discusses how European
(and in particular German) orientalism has influenced the modern
understanding of how language accesses reality and offers a
critical reinterpretation of orientalism, ontology and modernity.
This book pushes an innovative focus on the global history of
knowledge as entangled between European and non-European cultures.
Drawing from formal oriental studies, epigraphy, travel literature,
and theology, Henning Truper explores how the attempt to
appropriate the world by attaching language to the notion of a
'real' reference in the world ultimately produced a crisis of
meaning. In the process, Truper convincingly challenges received
understandings of the intellectual genealogies of oriental
scholarship and its practices. This ground-breaking study is a
meaningful contribution to current discourses about philology and
significantly adds to our understanding about the relationship
between discursive practices, cultural agendas, and political
systems. As such, it will be of immense value to scholars
researching Europe and the modern world, the history of philology,
and those seeking to historicise the prevalent debates in theory.
As media environments and communication practices evolve over time,
so do theoretical concepts. This book analyzes some of the most
well-known and fiercely discussed concepts of the digital age from
a historical perspective, showing how many of them have pre-digital
roots and how they have changed and still are constantly changing
in the digital era. Written by leading authors in media and
communication studies, the chapters historicize 16 concepts that
have become central in the digital media literature, focusing on
three main areas. The first part, Technologies and Connections,
historicises concepts like network, media convergence, multimedia,
interactivity and artificial intelligence. The second one is
related to Agency and Politics and explores global governance,
datafication, fake news, echo chambers, digital media activism. The
last one, Users and Practices, is finally devoted to telepresence,
digital loneliness, amateurism, user generated content, fandom and
authenticity. The book aims to shed light on how concepts emerge
and are co-shaped, circulated, used and reappropriated in different
contexts. It argues for the need for a conceptual media and
communication history that will reveal new developments without
concealing continuities and it demonstrates how the
analogue/digital dichotomy is often a misleading one.
Is time out of joint? For the past two centuries, the dominant
Western time regime has been future-oriented and based on the
linear, progressive and homogeneous concept of time. Over the last
few decades, there has been a shift towards a new, present-oriented
regime or 'presentism', made up of multiple and percolating
temporalities. Rethinking Historical Time engages with this change
of paradigm, providing a timely overview of cutting-edge
interdisciplinary approaches to this new temporal condition. Marek
Tamm and Laurent Olivier have brought together an international
team of scholars working in history, anthropology, archaeology,
geography, philosophy, literature and visual studies to rethink the
epistemological consequences of presentism for the study of past
and to discuss critically the traditional assumptions that underpin
research on historical time. Beginning with an analysis of
presentism, the contributors move on to explore in historical and
critical terms the idea of multiple temporalities, before
presenting a series of case studies on the variability of different
forms of time in contemporary material culture.
Historians not only have knowledge of history, but by writing about
it and engaging with other historians from the past and present,
they make history themselves. This companion offers young
historians clear guidelines for the different phases of historical
research; how do you get a good historical question? How do you
engage with the literature? How do you work with sources from the
past, from archives to imagery and objects, art, or landscapes?
What is the influence of digitalisation of the historical craft?
Broad in scope, Writing History! also addresses historians'
traditional support of policy makers and their activity in fields
of public history, such as museums, the media, and the leisure
sector, and offers support for developing the necessary skills for
this wide range of professions.
R.G Collingwood's prolific works have shaped the debate about the
nature of civilisation and its status as an ideal governing art,
morality and social and political existence. As one of the few
philosophers to subject civilisation and barbarism to close
analysis, R.G Collingwood was acutely aware of the
interrelationship between philosophy and history. In Peter
Johnson's highly original work, R.G Collingwood and the Second
World War: Facing Barbarism, Johnson combines historical,
biographical and philosophical discussion in order to illuminate
Collingwood's thinking and create the first in-depth analysis of
R.G Collingwood's responses to the Second World War. Peter Johnson
examines how R.G Collingwood's responses to the war developed from
his early rejection of appeasement as a policy for dealing with
Hitler's Germany, through his view of Britain's prosecution of the
war once the battle with Nazism had been joined, and finally to his
picture of a future liberal society in which civility is its
overriding ideal.
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.
Many students learn about the Middle East through a sprinkling of
information and generalizations deriving largely from media
treatments of current events. This scattershot approach can
propagate bias and misconceptions that inhibit students' abilities
to examine this vitally important part of the world. Understanding
and Teaching the Modern Middle East moves away from the Orientalist
frameworks that have dominated the West's understanding of the
region, offering a range of fresh interpretations and approaches
for teachers. The volume brings together experts on the rich
intellectual, cultural, social, and political history of the Middle
East, providing necessary historical context to familiarize
teachers with the latest scholarship. Each chapter includes easy-
to-explore sources to supplement any curriculum, focusing on
valuable and controversial themes that may prove pedagogically
challenging, including colonization and decolonization, the 1979
Iranian revolution, and the US-led 'war on terror.' By presenting
multiple viewpoints, the book will function as a springboard for
instructors hoping to encourage students to negotiate the various
contradictions in historical study.
This is a Short Story Book with A Difference: It has true stories
in it that show what it was like to live in a GIANT BUBBLE called
the 2nd World War. Many of the stories describe the emotional and
physical cost of a World War on the British people who were forced
to endure almost 6 years of continuous fighting. Numerous
individuals chose to supress their emotions by adopting the famous
British 'stiff upper lip' while struggling with their inner fears.
It wasn't the best solution; it was the only solution under the
circumstances. By doing so it provided them with the sufficient
inner strength to keep going through the unknown, for that's what
their lives were like during this period, completely unknown and
living on the edge day by day. Death was frequently perched on
their shoulders, taunting and mocking them. Especially those in the
military who lived through the terrible nightmare that was the
daily carnage in the front line, because they knew that tomorrow
could easily be their last day on earth. It was an abnormal
existence dealing with their own mortality, and many succumbed to
what was known at the time as 'shell shock,' and by the end of the
war it was too much of a burden for countless men and women and was
a contributing factor in many suicides in a society where being
outwardly strong was considered to be an important asset.
What would the world be like if history had taken a different
course? Science fiction literature has long contemplated this
interesting question. The Alternate History: Refiguring Historical
Time examines alternate history science fiction using the
eschatological, genetic, entropic, and teleological historical
models. Hellekson's original approach explains much of the appeal
of alternate history and distinguishes among the many varieties of
the genre. In her measured consideration of a range of writers,
Hellekson displays a deep and broad knowledge of the major works in
this genre-those by famous or neglected writers alike.
Few topics in modern history draw the attention that the Holocaust
does. The Shoah has become synonymous with unspeakable atrocity and
unbearable suffering. Yet it has also been used to teach tolerance,
empathy, resistance, and hope. Understanding and Teaching the
Holocaust provides a starting point for teachers in many
disciplines to illuminate this crucial event in world history for
students. Using a vast array of source materials-from literature
and film to survivor testimonies and interviews-the contributors
demonstrate how to guide students through these sensitive and
painful subjects within their specific historical and social
contexts. Each chapter provides pedagogical case studies for
teaching content such as antisemitism, resistance and rescue, and
the postwar lives of displaced persons. It will transform how
students learn about the Holocaust and the circumstances
surrounding it.
*** PROSE Award Winner (2018) in the Textbook/Humanities Category
*** A Practical Guide to Studying History is the perfect guide for
students embarking on degree-level study. The book: - introduces
students to the concepts of historical objectivity, frameworks and
debate - explains the differences in aims, methods and audiences
for different types of history - explores the relationship between
the skills developed during a history undergraduate degree and the
practice of professional history - helps students develop the
practical skills required to read historical writing critically,
write good essays, and participate in historical debates - includes
study questions, further reading lists, text boxes, maps and
illustrations The book incorporates case studies taken from a range
of regions and periods, reflecting the varied nature of historical
study at university, and helps students to understand history, and
to practice it successfully: it is an indispensable guide to
studying history.
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