How do the ethical implications of writing theatrical histories complicate the historiographical imperative in our current sociopolitical context? This volume investigates a historiography whose function is to be a mode of thinking and exposes the inner contradictions in social and ideological organizations of historical subjects.

This collection of essays explores how historians of theatre apply ethical thinking to the attempt to truthfully represent their subject - whether that be the life of a well-known performer, or the little known history of colonial theatre in India - by exploring the process by which such histories are written, and the challenges they raise.

In this new study of George Eliot's fiction, textual attempts to imagine a coherent and unified national past are seen as producing a contradictory vision of Englishness. It is a historiographical national identity, constructed in the image of predominant, and conflicting, trends in the Victorian writing of history. The inherent uncertainty caused by the shift between different perceptions of English history leads, in the later fiction, to an abandonment of contemporaneous grand narratives. The consequence is a history that anticipates a more modern, radical philosophy of history.

First published in 1955 to wide acclaim, James Joll's introduction to the history and development of International Socialism before the First World War is of crucial importance for understanding the development of Left-wing movements in the 20th century: the difficulties posed by prominent anarchist groups, the ambiguities of the scope of revolutionary activity, and the challenges posed by the rise of nationalism. Incorporating insightful research into the international links and the ideological structure of socialism, as well as on the structure of individual parties and the actual nature of their working-class support, The Second International 1889-1914 is a valuable resource for political historians and students of socialist thought alike.

This series aims at bridging the gap between historical theory and the study of historical memory as well as western and non-western concepts, for which this volume offers a particularly good example. It explores cultural differences in conceptualizing time and history in countries such as China, Japan, and India as well as pre-modern societies.

Jorn Rusen was Professor of Modern History at the Universities of Bochum and Bielefeld for many years. From 1994 to 1997 he was the Executive Director of the Center for Interdisciplinary Study (Zif). Since 1997 he has been President of the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities in Essen and Professor for General History and Historical Culture at the University of Witten-Herdecke.

Traces of Ink. Experiences of Philology and Replication is a collection of original papers exploring the textual and material aspects of inks and ink-making in a number of premodern cultures (Babylonia, the Graeco-Roman world, the Syriac milieu and the Arabo-Islamic tradition). The volume proposes a fresh and interdisciplinary approach to the study of technical traditions, in which new results can be achieved thanks to the close collaboration between philologists and scientists. Replication represents a crucial meeting point between these two parties: a properly edited text informs the experts in the laboratory who, in turn, may shed light on many aspects of the text by recreating the material reality behind it. Contributors are: Miriam Blanco Cesteros, Michele Cammarosano, Claudia Colini, Vincenzo Damiani, Sara Fani, Matteo Martelli, Ira Rabin, Lucia Raggetti, and Katja Weirauch.

More than a decade after the breakdown of the Soviet Empire and the reunification of Europe, historiographies and historical concepts still are very much apart. Though contacts became closer and Russian historians joined their Polish colleagues in the effort to take up western discussions and methodologies, there have been no common efforts yet for joint interpretations and no attempts to reach a common understanding of central notions and concepts. Exploring key concepts and different meanings in Western and East-European/Russian history, this volume offers an important contribution to such a comparative venture.

This study examines the historical and polemical writing of the late A.J.P. Taylor, Oxford don and television star. It provides a close examination of both historical interpretations and polemical arguments that appeared in books and essays for the popular press. The book covers Taylor's major historical and journalistic efforts from "The Italian Problem in European Diplomacy" in 1934 to "Beaverbrook" in 1972, looking for an explanation of his own judgement on his place within the historiographical community, that he was "the traitor at the gates." Other titles by Robert Cole include "Britain and the War of Words in Neutral Europe, 1939-45," "A Traveller's History of France" and "The Dissenting Tradition."

Born in Germany, Georg Iggers escaped from Nazism to the United States in his adolescence where he became one of the most distinguished scholars of European intellectual history and the history of historiography. In his lectures, delivered all over the world, and in his numerous books, translated into many languages, Georg Iggers has reshaped historiography and indefatigably promoted cross-cultural dialogue. This volume reflects the profound impact of his oeuvre. Among the contributors are leading intellectual historians but also younger scholars who explore the various cultural contexts of modern historiography, focusing on changes of European and American scholarship, as well as non-Western historical writing in relation to developments in the West. Addressing these changes from a transnational perspective, this well-rounded volume offers an excellent introduction to the field, which will be of interest to both established historians and graduate students.

The British Sociological Association held a conference on the theme "Sociology and History". In 1964, E.H. Carr had called for an open frontier between the disciplines. This book examines the traffic across this frontier and in particular, what might be called the sociological uses of history.

The Vietnam War ended over thirty years ago. Yet, it continues as a cultural reference point, shaping contemporary American society and culture, its impact felt in many different contexts. Vietnam precipitated a crisis in national self-confidence and a breakdown in political consensus out of which new ideological perspectives, including neo-conservatism, emerged. This book offers fresh perspectives on a defining event in "the American Century," examining its historical and political significance as well as its continuing cultural relevance.

A generally acknowledged characteristic of modern life, namely the temporalization of experience, inextricable from our intensified experience of contingency and difference, has until now remained largely outside psychology's purview. Wherever questions about the development, structure, and function of the concept of time have been posed - for example by Piaget and other founders of genetic structuralism - they have been concerned predominantly with concepts of "physical," chronometrical time, and related concepts (e.g., "velocity"). All the contributions to the present volume attempt to close this gap. A larger number are especially interested in the narration of stories. Overviews of the relevant literature, as well as empirical case studies, appear alongside theoretical and methodological reflections. Most contributions refer to specifically historical phenomena and meaning-constructions. Some touch on the subjects of biographical memory and biographical constructions of reality. Of all the various affinities between the contributions collected here, the most important is their consistent attention to issues of the constitution and representation of temporal experience.

What is our relationship with the past? A quiet revolution has transformed the ways in which History provides us with answers. Indeed, not so long ago the very question might have seemed odd. But in recent decades the solid moorings to which History was seemingly tethered have proved less secure than earlier supposed. That realization has produced some discomfiture, but also many more opportunities for understanding worlds with which we have lost connection.
No single book can hope to reflect all the ways in which History has 'changed with the times' nor can, or should, a volume with numerous contributors speak with one voice. Yet the Companion does range widely, addressing key themes and structures from new areas of enquiry as well as providing fresh treatment of established fields; and it does mark a significant departure in a genre still shaped by stories that are predominantly Western. It reflects a practice of history that seeks global connections and pioneers a sustained dialogue between historians specializing in the history of particular continents. It does not, in the sharply ridiculing phrase of one historian, compare the Ashanti empire to the British empire. But the scholars writing in this book build on the much greater awareness that 'Western' achievements and claims to modernity were often not as unique as once portrayed, and that the history of interconnections and multi-centric developments of different civilisations is crucial for a proper critical understanding of the past.
Escorted by some of the world's leading historians, readers of the Companion will find in these pages an indispensable guide to what history is today.

Containing some 3,000 quotations by 1,000 writers from different cultures, times, and perspectives, this book will fascinate readers who enjoy reflecting on history. Choice This unusual work examines the literature of history and its attempts to define the meaning of history. Approximately three thousand quotations by about 1,000 prominent philosophers, writers, and historians offer diverse interpretations of the significance of historical study, ranging from history viewed as bunk to history elevated to lyric poetry. The entries, arranged alphabetically by author, represent a variety of cultures and disciplines, and are documented as fully as possible by context, author, author birth and death dates, and vocation. Topics such as the role of the historian, the definition of history, the purpose of the study of history, and the values that history imparts broaden the scope of the work and enliven the debate over the meaning of history. Scholars, historians, and students will welcome this book, and it will also be of great use to academic and public libraries as a unique reference work.

Globalization presents major challenges to scholars of history. Different variants of global history and world history compete with, and transform, more traditional approaches of national, regional, and local scope, accompanied by new forms of international and transcultural cooperation. However, as this book shows, these transnational trends in the historical discipline are not without precedent. Based on painstaking research, this volume reconstructs the history of the International Congresses of Historians from the first one in The Hague, 1898, to the nineteenth in Oslo, 2000. It also tells the story of the International Committee of the Historical Sciences, the world organization of historians, which was founded, with much American support, in 1926 and today includes 54 national committees and 28 affiliated international organizations from all parts of the world. Karl Dietrich Erdmann, former president of this organization, covered the story up to 1985. Wolfgang J. Mommsen continued it into the twenty-first century. This book traces and analyzes the changes of historians' problems, topics, and methods, as reflected at their International Congresses and in the work of their international organization. It describes the cleavages, debates, and forging of ties among historians from different parts of the world and ideological camps. It demonstrates how historians fought against academic nationalism-or succumbed to its seduction. It shows how the Cold War polarized the world of historians whereas the International Congresses offered a platform for bridging the gap. Since 1990, they have helped to redefine the relationship between historians from the West and from other parts of the world. The internationalization of the study of history is reaching a new quality. Karl Dietrich Erdmann's book was first published in German in 1987. It has been translated, updated, and edited for an international audience of the twenty-first century.

This Symposium asks whether a 'history of Israel' can be written, and if it can, how? Can the Hebrew Bible be used as a source for such history? The question of writing the 'history of ancient Israel' has become fiercely debated in recent years. It is a debate that seems to generate more heat than light because of quite different concepts of historical methodology. The European Seminar on Methodology in Israel's History was founded specifically to address this problem. Members of the Seminar hold a variety of views but all agree that there is a problem to be tackled. The first meeting of the Seminar, held in Dublin in 1996, was devoted to some broad questions: (1) Can a 'history of ancient Israel' (or Palestine, Syria, the Levant, etc.) be written? (2) If so, how? What place does the Hebrew Bible have as a source in writing this history? This first volume contains the main papers that were prepared to set the stage for the discussion, along with an introduction to the Seminar, its aims and its membership. The editor also provides a concluding chapter summarizing and reflecting on the debate.>

This book explores how and why the idea of the African environmental crisis developed and persisted through colonial and post-colonial periods, and why it has been so influential in development discourse. From the beginnings of imperial administration, the idea of the desiccation of African environments grew in popularity, but this crisis discourse was dominated by the imposition of imperial scientific knowledge, neglecting indigenous knowledge and experience. African Environmental Crisis provides a synthesis of more than one-and-a-half century's research on peasant agriculture and pastoral rangeland development in terms of soil erosion control, animal husbandry, grazing schemes, large-scale agricultural schemes, social and administrative science research, and vector-disease and pest controls. Drawing on comparative socio-ecological perspectives of African peoples across the East African colonies and post-independent states, this book refutes the hypothesis that African peoples were responsible for environmental degradation. Instead, Gufu Oba argues that flawed imperial assumptions and short-term research projects generated an inaccurate view of the environment in Africa. This book's discussion of the history of science for development provides researchers across environmental studies, agronomy, African history and development studies with a lens through which to understand the underlying assumptions behind development projects in Africa.

History doesn't have to mean only an effort to know the past. It can be instead, according to Kierkegaard, a willful and personal choice regarding the creation of the future. Kierkegaard offers us an amazing new approach to the problem of what is history and who makes it.

A generally acknowledged characteristic of modern life, namely the temporalization of experience, inextricable from our intensified experience of contingency and difference, has until now remained largely outside psychology's purview. Wherever questions about the development, structure, and function of the concept of time have been posed - for example by Piaget and other founders of genetic structuralism - they have been concerned predominantly with concepts of "physical", chronometrical time, and related concepts (e.g., "velocity"). All the contributions to the present volume attempt to close this gap. A larger number are especially interested in the narration of stories. Overviews of the relevant literature, as well as empirical case studies, appear alongside theoretical and methodological reflections. Most contributions refer to specifically historical phenomena and meaning-constructions. Some touch on the subjects of biographical memory and biographical constructions of reality. Of all the various affinities between the contributions collected here, the most important is their consistent attention to issues of the constitution and representation of temporal experience.

This book is a major new critical study of the greatest comic writer of ancient Greece. It relates Aristophanes' work to modern literature and modern theory. It offers a new theory of comedy. It will be essential reading for students and specialists of ancient Greek drama and poetry, and also many students and specialists of modern literature.

" ... the student of the Great War and gender is well served, and Braybon's introduction provides an excellent overview of the various historiographical themes, whilst her footnotes provide a useful guide to further reading."? - History "Readers will not be disappointed by this scholarly, yet accessible, collection of essays."? - Centre for First World War Studies In the English-speaking world the Great War maintains a tenacious grip on the public imagination, and also continues to draw historians to an event which has been interpreted variously as a symbol of modernity, the midwife to the twentieth century and an agent of social change. Although much 'common knowledge' about the war and its aftermath has included myth, simplification and generalisation, this has often been accepted uncritically by popular and academic writers alike. While Britain may have suffered a surfeit of war books, many telling much the same story, there is far less written about the impact of the Great War in other combatant nations. Its history was long suppressed in both fascist Italy and the communist Soviet Union: only recently have historians of Russia begun to examine a conflict which killed, maimed and displaced so many millions. Even in France and Germany the experience of 1914-18 has often been overshadowed by the Second World War. The war's social history is now ripe for reassessment and revision. The essays in this volume incorporate a European perspective, engage with the historiography of the war, and consider how the primary textural, oral and pictorial evidence has been used - or abused. Subjects include the politics of shellshock, the impact of war on women, the plight of refugees, food distribution in Berlin and portrait photography, all of which illuminate key debates in war history. Gail Braybon is an independent historian. She is the author of Women Workers in the First World War and also wrote, with Penny Summerfield, Out of the Cage: Women's Experiences in Two World Wars.

Without denying the importance of the postmodernist approach to the narrative form and rhetorical strategies of historiography, the author, one of Germany's most prominent cultural historians, argues here in favor of reason and methodical rationality in history. He presents a broad variety of aspects, factors and developments of historical thinking from the 18th century to the present, thus continuing, in exemplary fashion, the tradition of critical self-reflection in the humanities and looking at historical studies as an important factor of cultural orientation in practical life.

Without denying the importance of the postmodernist approach to the narrative form and rhetorical strategies of historiography, the author, one of Germany's most prominent cultural historians, argues here in favor of reason and methodical rationality in history. He presents a broad variety of aspects, factors and developments of historical thinking from the 18th century to the present, thus continuing, in exemplary fashion, the tradition of critical self-reflection in the humanities and looking at historical studies as an important factor of cultural orientation in practical life. Jorn Rusen was Professor of Modern History at Universities Bochum and Bielefeld for many years. From 1994 to 1997 he was Director of the Center for Interdisciplinary Research (ZiF) at Bielefeld. Since 1997 he has been President of the Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities Essen (Kulturwissenschaftliches Institut). He specialises in theory and methodology of historical sciences, the history of historiography, intercultural aspects of historical thinking, theory of historical learning, and the history of human rights.