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Books > History > Theory & methods > Historiography
Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War is one of the classics
of ancient military writing, and one of the first true historical
narratives of any kind. In Thucydides on War and National
Character, Robert Luginbill explores Thucydides seminal writings on
national character and its relation to humankinds tendency towards
war. He investigates Thucydides theories on personal and national
behavior in times of stress, with an eye for the lessons to be
learned in modern times.
This book introduces and explores the role of apprehension in
reasoning - setting out the problems, determining the vocabulary,
fixing the boundaries, and questioning what is often taken for
granted. Lynn Holt argues that a robust conception of rationality
must include intellectual virtues which cannot be reduced to a set
of rules for reasoners, and argues that the virtue of apprehension,
an acquired disposition to see things correctly, is required if
rationality is to be defensible. Drawing on an Aristotelian
conception of intellectual virtue and examples from the sciences,
Holt shows why impersonal standards for rationality are misguided,
why foundations for knowledge are the last elements to emerge from
inquiry not the first, and why intuition is a poor substitute for
virtue. By placing the current scene in historical perspective,
Holt displays the current impasse as the inevitable outcome of the
replacement of intellectual virtue with method in the early modern
philosophical imagination. Written in an engaging and jargon-free
style, this book is of interest to a wide range of readers,
particularly epistemologists and philosophers of science concerned
with the fate of reason.
The field of American history has undergone remarkable expansion in
the past century, all of it reflecting a broadening of the
historical enterprise and democratization of its coverage. Today,
the shape of the field takes into account the interests,
identities, and narratives of more Americans than at any time in
its past. Much of this change can be seen through the history of
the Organization of American Historians, which, as its mission
states, "promotes excellence in the scholarship, teaching, and
presentation of American history, and encourages wide discussion of
historical questions and equitable treatment of all practitioners
of history."
This century-long history of the Organization of American
Historians-and its predecessor, the Mississippi Valley Historical
Association-explores the thinking and writing by professional
historians on the history of the United States. It looks at the
organization itself, its founding and dynamic growth, the changing
composition of its membership and leadership, the emphasis over the
years on teaching and public history, and pedagogical approaches
and critical interpretations as played out in association
publications, annual conferences, and advocacy efforts. The
majority of the book emphasizes the writing of the American story
by offering a panorama of the fields of history and their
development, moving from long-established ones such as political
history and diplomatic history to more recent ones, including
environmental history and the history of sexuality
The history of sexuality has progressed from its earlier marginal
status to a central place in historiography. Not only are its foci
of research intriguing, but the field has initiated important
theoretical advances for the discipline as a whole, especially
through the work of Michel Foucault. The editors of this new
four-volume Routledge collection define sexuality in a broader
sense than sexual identity, to include sexual emotions, desires,
acts, representations, and relationships. And while the history of
sexuality began in the American and European spheres, the volumes
also integrate studies of Asian, African, and other sexual
cultures. Similarly, the collection integrates studies from early
periods (such as classical Greece and Rome and the medieval era)
with modern histories of sexuality. The editors of this new
four-volume Routledge collection define sexuality in a broader
sense than sexual identity, to include sexual emotions, desires,
acts, representations, and relationships. And while the history of
sexuality began in the American and European spheres, the volumes
also integrate studies of Asian, African, and other sexual
cultures. Similarly, the collection integrates studies from early
periods (such as classical Greece and Rome and the medieval era)
with modern histories of sexuality.
This book introduces and explores the role of apprehension in
reasoning - setting out the problems, determining the vocabulary,
fixing the boundaries, and questioning what is often taken for
granted. Lynn Holt argues that a robust conception of rationality
must include intellectual virtues which cannot be reduced to a set
of rules for reasoners, and argues that the virtue of apprehension,
an acquired disposition to see things correctly, is required if
rationality is to be defensible. Drawing on an Aristotelian
conception of intellectual virtue and examples from the sciences,
Holt shows why impersonal standards for rationality are misguided,
why foundations for knowledge are the last elements to emerge from
inquiry not the first, and why intuition is a poor substitute for
virtue. By placing the current scene in historical perspective,
Holt displays the current impasse as the inevitable outcome of the
replacement of intellectual virtue with method in the early modern
philosophical imagination. Written in an engaging and jargon-free
style, this book is of interest to a wide range of readers,
particularly epistemologists and philosophers of science concerned
with the fate of reason.
Doing Oral History: A Practical Guide is considered the premier
guidebook to oral history, used by professional oral historians,
public historians, archivists, and genealogists as a core text in
college courses and throughout the public history community. Over
the past decades, the development of digital audio and video
recording technology has continued to alter the practice of oral
history, making it even easier to produce quality recordings and to
disseminate them on the Internet. This basic manual offers detailed
advice on setting up an oral history project, conducting
interviews, making video recordings, preserving oral history
collections in archives and libraries, and teaching and presenting
oral history. Using the existing Q&A format, the third edition
asks new questions and augments previous answers with new material,
particularly in these areas: 1. Technology: As before, the book
avoids recommending specific equipment, but weighs the merits of
the types of technology available for audio and video recording,
transcription, preservation, and dissemination. Information about
web sites is expanded, and more discussion is provided about how
other oral history projects have posted their interviews online. 2.
Teaching: The new edition addresses the use of oral history in
online teaching. It also expands the discussion of Institutional
Review Boards (IRBs) with the latest information about compliance
issues. 3. Presentation: Once interviews have been conducted, there
are many opportunities for creative presentation. There is much new
material available on innovative forms of presentation developed
over the last decade, including interpretive dance and other public
performances. 4. Legal considerations: The recent Boston College
case, in which the courts have ruled that Irish police should have
access to sealed oral history transcripts, has re-focused attention
on the problems of protecting donor restrictions. The new edition
offers case studies from the past decade. 5. Theory and Memory: As
a beginner's manual, Doing Oral History has not dealt extensively
with theoretical issues, on the grounds that these emerge best from
practice. But the third edition includes the latest thinking about
memory and provides a sample of some of the theoretical issues
surrounding oral sources. It will include examples of increased
studies into catastrophe and trauma, and the special considerations
these have generated for interviewers. 6. Internationalism: Perhaps
the biggest development in the past decade has been the spreading
of oral history around the world, facilitated in part by the
International Oral History Association. New oral history projects
have developed in areas that have undergone social and political
upheavals, where the traditional archives reflect the old regimes,
particularly in Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Africa, and
Latin America. The third edition includes many more references to
non-U.S. projects that will still be relevant to an American
audience. These changes make the third edition of Doing Oral
History an even more useful tool for beginners, teachers,
archivists, and all those oral history managers who have inherited
older collections that must be converted to the latest technology.
The decades since the 1980s have witnessed an unprecedented surge
in research about Latin American history. This much-needed volume
brings together original essays by renowned scholars to provide the
first comprehensive assessment of this burgeoning literature.
The seventeen original essays in The Oxford Handbook of Latin
American History survey the recent historiography of the colonial
era, independence movements, and postcolonial periods and span
Mexico, Spanish South America, and Brazil. They begin by
questioning the limitations and meaning of Latin America as a
conceptual organization of space within the Americas and how the
region became excluded from broader studies of the Western
hemisphere. Subsequent essays address indigenous peoples of the
region, rural and urban history, slavery and race, African,
European and Asian immigration, labor, gender and sexuality,
religion, family and childhood, economics, politics, and disease
and medicine. In so doing, they bring together traditional
approaches to politics and power, while examining the quotidian
concerns of workers, women and children, peasants, and racial and
ethnic minorities.
This volume provides the most complete state of the field and is an
indispensible resource for scholars and students of Latin America.
After three years in his own time, Chris Lennox is again thrown
back to Georgian England where wars are raging against the Danes
and the French. His life is on the line at home and abroad as he
fights to live another day. Ed Lane is a former member of the
Parachute Regiment T.A. In civilian life he ran his own graphic
design business where he honed his writing skills working for
multi-national companies. He lives in the tranquil Lincolnshire
Wolds with his wife Barb. To Live Another Day is his tenth novel.
In interviews with Amin Maalouf, Thierry Hentsch, Sara Suleri,
Marlene Nourbese Philip and Ackbar Abbas, history is discussed from
a non-European perspective. "What's remarkable is the scope Samuel
allows his interview subjects."--"Now""There is no shortage of
thought-provoking material here."--"Books in Canada"
'A groundbreaking and important book that will surely reframe our
understanding of the Great War' David Lammy'A genuinely
groundbreaking piece of research' BBC History 'Meticulously
researched and beautifully written' Military History Monthly In a
sweeping narrative, David Olusoga describes how Europe's Great War
became the World's War - a multi-racial, multi-national struggle,
fought in Africa and Asia as well as in Europe, which pulled in men
and resources from across the globe. Throughout, he exposes the
complex, shocking paraphernalia of the era's racial obsessions,
which dictated which men would serve, how they would serve, and to
what degree they would suffer. As vivid and moving as it is
revelatory and authoritative, The World's War explores the
experiences and sacrifices of four million non-European, non-white
people whose stories have remained too long in the shadows.
This is the first book on the genesis, impact and reception of the
most-widely read History of England of the early 18th century: Paul
Rapin Thoyras' Histoire d'Angleterre (1724-27). The Histoire and
complementary works (Extraits des Actes de Rymer, 1710-1724;
Dissertation sur les Whigs et les Torys, 1717) gave practical
expression to theorizations of history against Pyrrhonian
postulations by foregrounding an empirical form of history-writing.
Rapin's unprecedented standards of historiographical accuracy
triggered both politically-informed reinterpretations of the
Histoire in partisan newspapers and a multitude of adaptations that
catered to an ever-growing number of readers. Despite a
long-standing assessment as a "standard Whig historian", Rapin
fashioned the impartial persona of a judge-historian, in compliance
with the expectations of the Republic of Letters. His personal
trajectory illuminates how scholars pursued trustworthy knowledge
and how they reconsidered the boundaries of their community in the
face of the booming printing industry and the interconnected growth
of general readership. Rapin's oeuvre provided significant raw
material for Voltaire's and Hume's Enlightenment historiographical
narratives. A comparative foray into their respective different
approaches to history and authorship cautions us against assuming a
direct transition from the Republic of Letters into an
Enlightenment Republic of Letters. To study the diffusion and the
impact of Rapin's works is to understand that empirical
history-writing, defined by its commitment to erudition in the
service of impartiality, coexisted with the histoire philosophique.
This is a particularly vivid biography of a remarkable individual,
an Indonesian historian and public intellectual who was both a
public figure and a multi-minority member, being Dutch-educated,
Indonesian Chinese, gay, alcoholic, irreligious and hedonist, in a
conservative society. This biography delves into its subject's
interior life: the fears, doubts, confusions; the issues of
sexuality, the mental breakdown, the jailing, the later success,
joys and celebrity, as a historian, public intellectual and famous
cook. This biography breaks out of the Indonesian Chinese category.
It is primarily an Indonesian story. In its early chapters this
biography reveals much about the 'sugar king' Chinese aristocracy
of Indonesia, from the inside. In its later chapters this book
shows much about the development of Indonesians writing their own
post-colonial history, and the intellectual influences on this
writing. Onghokham was a senior public intellectual with over 300
writings over 50 years, containing original insights into many
varied Indonesian topics, including colonial history and its
effects on modern politics and society; the Indonesian Chinese;
'outsiders' -- marginal people; the jago or brigand as people's
champion; sexuality in Indonesia past and present; food; the
Oedipus complex; painting; traditional Javanese beliefs from the
palace to the peasant.
How did the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution affect everyone's
lives? Why did people re/negotiate their identities to adopt
revolutionary roles and duties? How did people, who lived with
different self-understandings and social relations, inevitably
acquire and practice revolutionary identities, each in their own
light?This book plunges into the contexts of these concerns to seek
different relations that reveal the Revolution's different
meanings. Furthermore, this book shows that scholars of the
Cultural Revolution encountered emotional and intellectual
challenges as they cared about the real people who owned an
identity resource that could trigger an imagined thread of
solidarity in their minds.The authors believe that the Revolution's
magnitude and pervasive scope always resulted in individualized
engagements that have significant and differing consequences for
those struggling in their micro-context. It has impacted a future
with unpredictable collective implications in terms of ethnicity,
gender, memory, scholarship, or career. The Cultural Revolution is,
therefore, an evolving relation beneath the rise of China that will
neither fade away nor sanction integrative paths.
One of the twentieth century's most influential books, this classic
work of anthropology offers a groundbreaking exploration of what
culture is With The Interpretation of Cultures, the distinguished
anthropologist Clifford Geertz developed the concept of thick
description, and in so doing, he virtually rewrote the rules of his
field. Culture, Geertz argues, does not drive human behavior.
Rather, it is a web of symbols that can help us better understand
what that behavior means. A thick description explains not only the
behavior, but the context in which it occurs, and to describe
something thickly, Geertz argues, is the fundamental role of the
anthropologist. Named one of the 100 most important books published
since World War II by the Times Literary Supplement, The
Interpretation of Cultures transformed how we think about others'
cultures and our own. This definitive edition, with a foreword by
Robert Darnton, remains an essential book for anthropologists,
historians, and anyone else seeking to better understand human
cultures.
Why have the influences of the Great Proletarian Cultural
Revolution (roughly 1966-1976) in contemporary China been so
pervasive, profound, and long-lasting? This book posits that the
Revolution challenged everyone to decide how they can and should be
themselves.Even scholars who study the Cultural Revolution from a
presumably external vantage point must end up with an ideological
position relative to whom they study. This amounts to a focused
curiosity toward the Maoist agenda rivaling its alternatives. As a
result, the political lives after the Cultural Revolution remain,
ulteriorly and ironically, Maoist to a ubiquitous extent.How then
can we cleanse, forget, neutralize, rediscover, contextualize,
realign, revitalize, or renovate Maoism? The authors contend that
all must appropriate ideologies for political and analytical
purposes and adapt to how others use ideological discourses. This
book then invites its readers to re-examine ideology contexts for
people to appreciate how they acquire their roles and duties. Those
more practiced can even reversely give new meanings to reform,
nationalism, foreign policy, or scholarship by shifting between
Atheism, Maoism, Confucianism, and Marxism, incurring alternative
ideological lenses to de-/legitimize their subject matter.
Throughout the twentieth century, scholars, artists and politicians
have accused each other of "historicism." But what exactly did this
mean? Judging by existing scholarship, the answers varied
enormously. Like many other "isms," historicism could mean nearly
everything, to the point of becoming meaningless. Yet the questions
remain: What made generations of scholars throughout the humanities
and social sciences worry about historicism? Why did even musicians
and members of parliament warn against historicism? And what
explains this remarkable career of the term across generations,
fields, regions, and languages? Focusing on the "travels" that
historicism made, this volume uses historicism as a prism for
exploring connections between disciplines and intellectual
traditions usually studied in isolation from each other. It shows
how generations of sociologists, theologians, and historians tried
to avoid pitfalls associated with historicism and explains why the
term was heavily charged with emotions like anxiety, anger, and
worry. While offering fresh interpretations of classic authors such
as Friedrich Meinecke, Karl Loewith, and Leo Strauss, this volume
highlights how historicism took on new meanings, connotations, and
emotional baggage in the course of its travels through time and
place.
This volume approaches the broad topic of wonder in the works of
Tacitus, encompassing paradox, the marvellous and the admirable.
Recent scholarship on these themes in Roman literature has tended
to focus on poetic genres, with comparatively little attention paid
to historiography: Tacitus, whose own judgments on what is worthy
of note have often differed in interesting ways from the
preoccupations of his readers, is a fascinating focal point for
this complementary perspective. Scholarship on Tacitus has to date
remained largely marked by a divide between the search for veracity
- as validated by modern historiographical standards - and literary
approaches, and as a result wonders have either been ignored as
unfit for an account of history or have been deprived of their
force by being interpreted as valid only within the text. While the
modern ideal of historiographical objectivity tends to result in
striving for consistent heuristic and methodological frameworks,
works as varied as Tacitus' Histories, Annals and opera minora can
hardly be prefaced with a statement of methodology broad enough to
escape misrepresenting their diversity. In our age of
specialization a streamlined methodological framework is a virtue,
but it should not be assumed that Tacitus had similar priorities,
and indeed the Histories and Annals deserve to be approached with
openness towards the variety of perspectives that a tradition as
rich as Latin historiographical prose can include within its scope.
This collection proposes ways to reconcile the divide between
history and historiography by exploring contestable moments in the
text that challenge readers to judge and interpret for themselves,
with individual chapters drawing on a range of interpretive
approaches that mirror the wealth of authorial and reader-specific
responses in play.
What is it to practice history in an age in which photographs
exist? What is the impact of photographs on the core
historiographical practices which define the discipline and shape
its enquiry and methods? In Photographs and the Practice of
History, Elizabeth Edwards proposes a new approach to historical
thinking which explores these questions and redefines the practices
at the heart of this discipline. Structured around key concepts in
historical methodology which are recognisable to all
undergraduates, the book shows that from the mid-19th century
onward, photographs have influenced historical enquiry. Exposure to
these mass-distributed cultural artefacts is enough to change our
historical frameworks even when research is textually-based.
Conceptualised as a series of 'sensibilities' rather than a
methodology as such, it is intended as a companion to 'how to'
approaches to visual research and visual sources. Photographs and
the Practice of History not only builds on existing literature by
leading scholars: it also offers a highly original approach to
historiographical thinking that gives readers a foundation on which
to build their own historical practices.
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