Liberating Histories makes an original, scholarly contribution to contemporary debates surrounding the cultural and political relevance of historical practices. Arguing against the idea that specifically historical readings of the past are necessary or are compelled by the force of past events themselves, this book instead focuses on other forms of past-talk and how they function in politically empowering ways against social injustices. Challenging the authority and constraints of academic history over the past, this book explores various forms of past-talk, including art, films, activism, memory, nostalgia and archives. Across seven clear chapters, Claire Norton and Mark Donnelly show how activists and campaigners have used forms of past-talk to unsettle 'common sense' thinking about political and social problems, how journalists, artists, curators, filmmakers and performers have referenced the past in their practices of advocacy, and how grassroots archivists help to circulate materials that challenge the power of authorised institutional archives to determine what gets to count as a demonstrable feature of the past and whose voices are part of the 'historical record'. Written in a lucid, accessible manner, and combining insightful critical analysis and philosophical argument with clear consideration of how different forms of past-talk influence the narration of pasts in a variety of socio-political contexts, Liberating Histories is essential reading for students and scholars with an interest in historiography and the ethical and political dimensions of the historical discipline.

Although not a professional historian, the author raises several issues pertinent to the state of history today. Qualifying the 'non-historian' as an 'able' interventionist in historical studies, the author explores the relationship between history and theory within the current epistemological configurations and refigurations. He asks how history transcends the obsessive 'linguistic' turn, which has been hegemonizing literary/discourse analysis, and focuses greater attention on historical experience and where history stands in relation to our understanding of ethics, religion and the current state of global politics that underlines the manipulation and abuse of history.

Late antiquity is increasingly recognised as a period of important cultural transformation. One of its crucial aspects is the emergence of a new awareness of human individuality. In this book an interdisciplinary and international group of scholars documents and analyses this development. Authors assess the influence of seminal thinkers, including the Gnostics, Plotinus, and Augustine, but also of cultural and religious practices such as astrology and monasticism, as well as, more generally, the role played by intellectual disciplines such as grammar and Christian theology. Broad in both theme and scope, the volume serves as a comprehensive introduction to late antique understandings of human individuality.

The major significance of the German naturalist-physician Johann Friedrich Blumenbach (1752-1840) as a topic of historical study is the fact that he was one of the first anthropologists to investigate humankind as part of natural history. Moreover, Blumenbach was, and continues to be, a central figure in debates about race and racism. How exactly did Blumenbach define race and races? What were his scientific criteria? And which cultural values did he bring to bear on his scheme? Little historical work has been done on Blumenbach's fundamental, influential race work. From his own time till today, several different pronouncements have been made by either followers or opponents, some accusing Blumenbach of being the fountainhead of scientific racism. By contrast, across early nineteenth-century Europe, not least in France, Blumenbach was lionized as an anti-racist whose work supported the unity of humankind and the abolition of slavery. This collection of essays considers how, with Blumenbach and those around him, the study of natural history and, by extension, that of science came to dominate the Western discourse of race.

This book is a detailed examination of the sources and protocols John Foxe used to justify the Reformation, and claim that the Church of Rome had fallen into the grip of Antichrist. The focus is on the pre-Lollard, medieval history in the first two editions of the Acts and Monuments. Comparison of the narrative that Foxe writes to the possible sources helps us to better understand what it was that Foxe was trying to do, and how he came to achieve his aims. A focus on sources also highlights the collaborative circle in which Foxe worked, recognizing the essential role of other scholars and clerics such as John Bale and Matthew Parker.

In this witty, engaging and challenging book, Carolyn Steedman has produced a highly original and sometimes irreverent investigation into the development of modern history writing. Dust is about the practice and writing of history. Dust considers the immutable, stubborn set of beliefs about the material world, past and present, inherited from the nineteenth century, with which modern history writing attempts to grapple. Drawing on over five years worth of her own published and unpublished writing, the author has produced a sustained argument about the way in which history writing belongs to the currents of thought shaping the modern world. Steedman begins by looking at the attention paid to the archive by those working in the humanities and social sciences in recent years, what has become known as the practice of 'archivisation'. By definition, the archive is the repository of 'that which will not go away', and the book goes on to suggest that, just like dust, the 'matter of history' can never go away or be erased. Historians who want to think about what it is they do will find this work enlightening, and this book is essential reading for all undergraduates and postgraduates studying historiography, and history and theory. -- .

This collection demonstrates the usefulness of approaching texts-verbal, visual and aural-through a framework of humour. Contributors offer in-depth discussions of humour in the West within a wider cultural historical context to achieve a coherent, chronological sense of how humour proceeds from antiquity to modernity. Reading humorously reveals the complexity of certain aspects of texts that other reading approaches have so far failed to reveal. Humour in the Arts explores humour as a source of cultural formation that engages with ethical, political, and religious controversies whilst acquainting readers with a wide range of humorous structures and strategies used across Western cultures.

This study explores the connection between politics and historical scholarship in the case of the Hungarian historian, Gyula Szekfu, whose career spanned one of the most significant and eventful periods of Hungarian history. His writing is particularly suited for an inquiry into the relationship between politics and historiography becasue the changes in Szefku's political and historical points of view parallelled the drastic changes which occurred in Hungary.

This book seeks to highlight the influence of the Enlightenment idea of social progress on the character of the "civilising mission" in early Australia by tracing its presence in the various "civilising" attempts undertaken between 1788 and 1850. It also represents an attempt to marry the history of the British Enlightenment and the history of settler-Aboriginal interactions. The chronological structure of the book, as well as the breadth of its content, will facilitate the readers' understanding of the evolution of "civilising attempts" and their epistemological underpinnings, while throwing additional light on the influence of the Enlightenment on Australian history as a whole.

This book, originally published in 1977, is a survey of European historiography from its origins in the historians of Greece and Rome, through the annalists and chroniclers of the middle ages, to the historians of the late eighteenth century. The author concentrates on those writers whose works fit into a specific category of writing, or who have inlfuence the course of later historical writing, though he does deal with some of the more specialist forms of medieval historiography such as the crusading writers, and chivalrous historians like Froissart. He maintains that 'modern' history did not develop until the 18th Century.

This book presents the collectors' roles as prominently as the collections of books and texts which they assembled. Contributors explore the activities and networks shaping a range of continental and transcontinental European public and private collections during the Renaissance, Enlightenment and modern eras. They study the impact of class, geographical location and specific cultural contexts on the gathering and use of printed and handwritten texts and other printed artefacts. The volume explores the social dimension of book collecting, and considers how practices of collecting developed during these periods of profound cultural, social and political change.

Written by one of the most eminent, (if sometimes disputed) historians of the 20th century, this book, originally published in 1939, gives guidance to the would-be historian on historical sources, research and evidence. Although inevitably a product of its time, this volume nonetheless remains one of the most comprehensive guides to historiograhy.

A critical account of the case for historicism from Popper to Foucault, this volume, originally published in 1989, shows the viability of an historicist account of knowledge by replying to traditional objections and the need for defenses of realism and reference at the heart of most alternatives to historicism. The book provides insights to those in philosophy as well as literary criticism, intellectual history, history of science, and cultural criticism.

Historiography is the study of the methodology of writing history, the development of the discipline of history, and the changing interpretations of historical events in the works of individual historians. Exploring the historiography of Persian art and architecture requires a closer look at a diverse range of sources, including chronicles, historical accounts, travelogues, and material evidence coming from archaeological excavations. The Historiography of Persian Architecture highlights the political, cultural, and intellectual contexts that lie behind the written history of Persian architecture in the twentieth century, presenting a series of investigations on issues related to historiography. This book addresses the challenges, complexities, and contradictions regarding historical and geographical diversity of Persian architecture, including issues lacking in the 20th century historiography of Iran and neighbouring countries. This book not only illustrates different trends in Persian architecture but also clarifies changing notions of research in this field. Aiming to introduce new tools of analysis, the book offers fresh insights into the discipline, supported by historical documents, archaeological data, treatises, and visual materials. It brings together well-established and emerging scholars from a broad range of academic spheres, in order to question and challenge pre-existing historiographical frameworks, particularly through specific case studies. Overall, it provides a valuable contribution to the study of Persian architecture, simultaneously revisiting past literature and advancing new approaches. This book would be of interest to students and scholars of Middle East and Iranian Studies, as well as Architectural History, including Islamic architecture and historiography.

Each of the essays in this volume, originally published in 1970, touches upon a historical theme which Herbert Butterfield illuminated. It covers a wide range of topics from music and relgion in modern European history to the scientific revolution of the 17th century.

"This is the first intellectual biography, in any language, on post-war Germany's greatest theorist of history, Reinhart Koselleck. It not only illuminates Koselleck's role in founding conceptual history, but also introduces his important accounts of historical time, of historical anthropology, and of political iconology. Both students of post-war German intellectual history and, broadly speaking, of philosophies of history will find this an immensely rich and stimulating volume." Jan-Werner Muller, Professor of Politics and Founding Director, Project in the History of Political Thought, Princeton University

"This is a very thorough and, at the same time, original take on Reinhard Koselleck's work...As the major representative of German" Begriffsgeschichte, "he deserves to be better known in the English-speaking world, and this volume will go a long way to achieve this aim...It is an excellent contribution to historical theory and the history of historiography." Stefan Berger, University of Manchester

."..an impressive book, especially in the way in which the author succeeds in integrating biographical, historical, and philosophical elements in an elegant and lucid way-something achieved by only the best introductions to Western thinkers and intellectuals." Helge Jordheim, University of Oslo

Reinhart Koselleck (1923-2006) was one of most imposing and influential European intellectual historians in the twentieth century. Constantly probing and transgressing the boundaries of mainstream historical writing, he created numerous highly innovative approaches, absorbing influences from other academic disciplines as represented in the work of philosophers and political thinkers like Hans Georg Gadamer and Carl Schmitt and that of internationally renowned scholars such as Hayden White, Michel Foucault, and Quentin Skinner. An advocate of "grand theory," Koselleck was an inspiration to many scholars and helped move the discipline into new directions (such as conceptual history, theories of historical times and memory) and across disciplinary and national boundaries. He thus achieved a degree of international fame that was unusual for a German historian after 1945. This book not only presents the life and work of a "great thinker" and European intellectual, it also contributes to our understanding of complex theoretical and methodological issues in the cultural sciences and to our knowledge of the history of political, historical, and cultural thought in Germany from the 1950s to the present.

Niklas Olsen received his PhD in History from the European University Institute in Florence. He is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Copenhagen working on a project on the variants of liberalism in Denmark and Western Europe, 1945-1990.

This book, first published in 1988, examines the origins, purposes and functioning of the civic universities founded in the second half of the nineteenth century and discusses their significance within both local and wider communities. It argues that the civic universities - and those of the northern industrial cities in particular - were among the most notable expressions of the civic culture of Victorian Britain and both a source and a reflection of the professional and expert society which was growing to maturity in that time and place. This title will be of interest to students of history and education.

This study, first published in 1993, traces the path of women toward intellectual emancipation from eighteenth-century precedents, through the hard-won access to college education in the nineteenth-century, to the triumphs of the early 1900s. The author compares women's experiences in both the US and England, and will be of interest to students of history, education and gender studies.

The theme of conspiracy is central to Machiavelli's writing. His work offers observations and analysis of conspiracy as part of the armoury of the Renaissance politician. Surprisingly, the theme has not yet received the attention it merits. This volume corrects an interpretation which reduces Machiavelli's position to one of censorious observer of conspiracies. Quite to the contrary, as Campi demonstrates, Machiavelli developed an anatomy of conspiracy and provided a practical manual for coup d'etat" and violent seizure of power.

Who reads academic histories? Should historians reach out more beyond academia to the general public? Why do Hollywood films, historical novels and television histories prove more successful in presenting the past to a wider audience? What can historians do to improve their effectiveness in reaching and engaging their target audience in a digital age? The way history is presented to an audience is often taken for granted, even ignored. Presenting History explores the vital role played by presenters in both establishing why history matters in today's world and communicating the past to audiences within and outside academia. Through case studies of leading historians, historical novelists, Hollywood filmmakers and television history presenters, this book looks critically at alternative literary and visual ways of presenting the past as both academic history and popular history. Historians discussed include Stephen Ambrose, Niall Ferguson, Eric Hobsbawm, Robert A. Rosenstone, Simon Schama, Joan Wallach Scott and A.J.P. Taylor. Chapter topics include Hollywood and history; Michael Bellesiles' controversial history of gun rights in the USA; Philippa Gregory's historical novels; historians and the David Irving trial; and Terry Deary's 'Horrible Histories'. Raising serious questions about the nature, study and communication of history, Presenting History is an essential text for historians and history students, as well as anyone involved in listening to, reading, or watching presenters of the past.

First published in 1979. This book studies the social outlook which historians today call paternalism. It was an ideology which informed social attitudes at all levels of society and expressed itself in countless ways. In this work, David Roberts provides a comprehensive examination of the revival, amplification, and transformation of the ideals of paternalism as a social remedy in the Early Victorian Period. This title will be of interest to students of history.

This volume, originally published in 1980 discusses the way in which distinguished historians such as Gibbon, Ranke, Macaulay, De Tocqueville, Marx, Maitland, Bloch, Namier, Wheeler, Butterfield and Braudel have regarded and tackled their discipline. As well as chapters by individual authors who are experts on their chosen historian, there is a substantial introduction by the editor which serves as the basis for a discussion about the problems involved in the writing of history.

In this work, originally published in 1989, the author establishes a tradition of radical historicism from Hegel to the Budapenst School. He charts both its continuous evolution from the early 19th century to the late 20thh, and its transformation in the context of European social, economic and cultural change. Through a reappraisal of historical interpretation from Hegel to Foucault, the book demonstrates the contemporary relevance of radical historicism. It includes detailed analyses of Marx, Dilthey, Simmel, Weber, Lukacks, Horkheimer, Adorno and Habermas.

A re-newed interest in, and appreciation of, the problems of history, both as the theory of historical process and as historiography became one of the marked characteristics of twentieth century thought and this book discusses Benedetto Croce's historical writings in that context.

This book, originally published in 1972, offers a stimulating account of the Christian tradition of historiography as it is reflected in works of literature and history. The discussion ranges from the pre-Christian The Iliad up to the 1970s. The author considers subjects such as the Mystery Plays in the medieval synthesis, the nature of the evidence provided by the Renaissance authors in England and the Continent, the contemporary world. The book examines the attitudes of historians and at the use historians have made of the Christian view of history.