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Books > History > Theory & methods > Historiography
The houses of history is a clear, jargon-free introduction to the major theoretical approaches employed by historians. This innovative critical reader provides accessible introductions to fourteen schools of thought, from the empiricist to the postcolonial, including chapters on Marxist history, Freud and psychohistory, the Annales, historical sociology, narrative, gender, public history and the history of the emotions. Each chapter begins with a succinct description of the ideas integral to a particular theory. The authors then explore the insights and controversies arising from the application of this model, drawing upon debates and examples from around the world. Each chapter concludes with a representative example from a historian writing within this conceptual framework. This newly revised edition of the highly successful textbook is the ideal basis for an introductory course in history and theory for students of history at all levels. -- .
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.
Enlightenment in Scotland and France: Studies in Political Thought provides comparative analysis of the Scottish and French Enlightenments. Studies of the two Enlightenments have previously focused on the transnational, their story one of continuity between Scottish intellectuals and French philosophes and of a mutual commitment to combat fanaticism in all its forms. This book contends that what has been missing, by and large, from the scholarly literature is the comparative analysis that underscores the contrasts as well as the similarities of the Enlightenments in Scotland and France. This book shows that, although the similarities of "enlightened" political thought in the two countries are substantial, the differences are also remarkable and stand out in culminating relief in the Scottish and French reactions to the American Revolution. Mark Hulliung argues that it was 1776, not 1789, that was the moment when the spokespersons for Enlightenment in Scotland and France parted company.
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.
In this volume leading academics explore the relationship between the experiences of terror and helplessness, the way in which survivors remember and the representation of these memories in the language and form of their life stories.
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.
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.
This title was first published in 2000: This is a full-scale integrated synthesis of the origins, spread and effects of monasticism in Scandinavia, and along the shores of the Baltic and the North Sea. Beginning with a review of the geography and communications by land and, especially, by sea, of the region, Nyberg goes on to describe early monasticism among the Frisians ,Saxons and the Danes, then in Norway and Sweden, Saxony, Slesvig and Ribe, and finally Pomerania and the southern and eastern Baltic littoral. Throughout the book he stresses the place of abbeys and convents within their local surroundings, as centres of conversion, recruitment and redistribution of wealth. He traces the intellectual, literary and liturgical connections between monastic centres and neighbouring cathedral towns and royal strongholds, and the means by which orders or congregations maintained discipline from the centre. He also describes the leaders who emerged from convent, abbey or congregation to command local and regional political and cultural life, and the ways in which monastic centres influenced popular devotion.
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.
The causewayed enclosures of the neolithic era were the first monumental structures in the British Isles. But the uses to which these vast concentric rings of raised walkways were put remains confused. Archaeological evidence suggests that these sites had many different, and often contradictory functions, and there may have been other uses for which no evidence survives. How can archaeologists present an effective interpretation, with the consciousness that both their own subjectivity, and the variety of conflicting views will determine their approach. Because these sites have become a focus for so much controversy, the problem of presenting them to the public assumes a critical importance. The authors raise central issues which occur in all archaeological interpretation, especially in sites that have been put to a variety of uses over time. The authors have not tried to provide a comprehensive review of the archaeology of all these causewayed sites in Britain, but rather to use them as case studies in the development of an arcaheological interpretation. These techniques and approaches can be applied to sites of many periods.
This book examines comparatively how the writing of history by
individuals and groups, historians, politicians and journalists has
been used to "legitimate" the nation-state agianst socialist,
communist and catholic internationalism in the modern era. Covering
the whole of Western Europe, the book includes discussion of:
Covering both the great military leaders and the critical civil leaders during the American Civil War, this book provides an overview of their careers and a professional assesment of their accomplishments. Entries consider the leader's character and prewar experience, their contributions to the war effort and the war's impact on the rest of their lives. That's if they lived. The entries then look at how history has assessed these leaders - thus putting their longtime reputations on the line. The result is a revision of some leaders' careers, a call for further study of others and a reaffirmation of the accomplishments of the greatest leaders. Analyzing the leaders historiographically, this book shows how the leaders wanted to be remembered, how postwar memoirists and biographers saw them, the verdict of early historians and how the best modern historians have assessed their contributions. By including a variety of leaders from both civilian and military life, the book provides an understanding of the total war.
How was it possible to write history in the Soviet Union, under strict state control and without access to archives? What methods of research did these 'historians' - be they academic, that is based at formal institutions, or independent - rely on? And how was their work influenced by their complex and shifting relationships with the state? To answer these questions, Barbara Martin here tracks the careers of four bold and important dissidents: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Roy Medvedev, Aleksandr Nekrich and Anton Antonov-Ovseenko. Based on extensive archival research and interviews (with some of the authors themselves, as well as those close to them), the result is a nuanced and very necessary history of Soviet dissident history writing, from the relative liberalisation of de-Stalinisation through increasing repression and persecution in the Brezhnev era to liberalisation once more during perestroika. In the process Martin sheds light onto late Soviet society and its relationship with the state, as well as the ways in which this dissidence participated in weakening the Soviet regime during Perestroika. This is important reading for all scholars working on late Soviet history and society.
This important interdisciplinary study traces transformations in Victorial historical writing that made possible new ways of thinking about and representing women in history. Combining literary history with cultural studies and feminist historiography, it examines a wide array of essays and reviews from Victorian periodicals to provide the terms and context for innovative readings of George Eliot's novels "Romola "and "Middlemarch "and of a range of nineteenth-century historical works, including works by and about women that are discussed extensively here for the first time. The blurring of boundaries between historical and fictional narratives, stimulated by the enormous success of Walter Scott's novels, and the development of social history are shown to have been key factors in an uneven, controversial, but persistent feminization of history, the first because of the longstanding association of novels with women the second because social history focuses on the private sphere, traditionally women's domain. Along with the appearance of numerous historical texts written by women and taking women as their subjects, these developments challenged conventional beliefs about historical authority and relevance that had long relegated women to the margins, both literally and metaphorically. In its exploration of these changes and their implications, "Gender and Victorian Historical Writing "revises standard assumptions about Victorian ideas of history, finding an awareness of and experimentation with gender and genre that prefigure theoretical and scholarly concerns in contemporary women's history.
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.
'The most important art historian of his generation' is how some scholars have described the late Michael Baxandall (1933-2007), Professor of the Classical Tradition at the Warburg Institute, University of London, and of the History of Art at the University of California, Berkeley. Baxandall's work had a transformative effect on the study of European Renaissance and eighteenth-century art, and contributed to a complex transition in the aims and methods of art history in general during the 1970s, '80s and '90s. While influential, he was also an especially subtle and independent thinker - occasionally a controversial one - and many of the implications of his work have yet to be fully understood and assimilated. This collection of 10 essays endeavors to assess the nature of Baxandall's achievement, and in particular to address the issue of the challenges it offers to the practice of art history today. This volume provides the most comprehensive assessment of Baxandall's work to date, while drawing upon the archive of Baxandall papers recently deposited at the Cambridge University Library and the Warburg Institute.
First published in 1960, this work describes the lives and labours of six great scholars - Simon Ockley, Sir William Jones, E. W. Lane, E. H. Palmer, E.G. Browne and R. A Nicholson. These men were devoted to building a bridge between the peoples and cultures of Europe and Asia. To these biographical essays, Arberry has added a short autobiography and an eloquent plea for the further encouragement of Oriental studies. This book will be of interest to those studying Middle-Eastern studies and the history of Orientalist study.
In My Time is a vivid account of the fascinating life of Robert Strausz-Hupe, who served American presidents for twenty years in a variety of diplomatic posts. It is a life filled with both excitement and tragedy. In this autobiography, Strausz-Hupe covers a wide range of topics, including his youth in Vienna, his familial background, and his schooling. The author also discusses his emigration to the United States, describing his initial impressions of the country as well as how he viewed the changes that were occurring in American society and culture. Strausz-Hupe has written a poignant introduction for the republication of this volume. He explains how he reaches out to history for an explanation of who he is as an individual. Just as entire nations should learn from history, so should individuals, as Strausz-Hupe has attempted to do in his autobiography. Robert Strausz-Hupe is one of those increasingly rare, universally educated men whose minds conform only to their own beliefs and findings. His views of events such as the rise of German Nazism, or Chinese Communism, or the world of the theater in Europe between the two world wars are always fresh, exciting, and informed. In My Time will be enjoyed by all who read it, especially historians, political theorists, and policymakers.
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 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.
Despite the criticism of his peers and the inattention of his successors, Alexandru Xenopol provided Romanian nationalistic historiography with a greater measure of respectability, especially with the general public. By the time of WWI a strong sense of national identity had become entrenched as an intellectually respectable mentality among Romania's literate classes. This book examines Xenopol's participation in the creation of this mentality in Romania during decades that were crucial to the development of institutionalized intellectual life and and educted behaviour in that country.
This treatise of historical methodology, originally published in 1950 is based upon a liberal conception of history which excludes no narrator of past events from the ranks of historians. It defines history as the accurate story which preserves the memory of the past experiences of human societies. The functionof history determines its method and provides the answer to the question: how secure is our knowledge of the past? In the author's view, history is empirical and its results are for ever provisional. The relative merits of dogmatism and scepticism are examined and several interpretations among English historians are scrutinized. |
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