A Companion to Western Historical Thought

ISBN-13: 9781405149617 / Angielski / Miękka / 2006 / 544 str.

Lloyd Kramer

Opis

This broad survey introduces readers to the major themes, figures, traditions and theories in Western historical thought, tracing its evolution from biblical times to the present.

• Surveys the evolution of historical thought in the Western World from biblical times to the present day.
  
• Provides students with the background to contemporary historical debates and approaches.
  
• Serves as a useful reference for researchers and teachers.
  
• Includes chapters by 24 leading historians.

Recenzje

"This companion is expansive in its subject and links with other disciplines, such as ancient history and the classics, anthropology, Biblical studies and theology It covers many expected subjects, but also explores lesser–known areas of historical interest as well as the challenges to historical thought in the twenty–first century that will continue to make this companion a useful library resource." Reference Reviews

Spis treści

List of Contributors viii

Acknowledgments xii

Introduction: The Cultural History of Historical Thought 1
Lloyd Kramer and Sarah Maza

PART I THE PRE–MODERN ORIGINS OF WESTERN HISTORICAL THOUGHT

1 Historiography in Ancient Israel 15
John Van Seters

2 Historical Thought in Ancient Greece 35
Philip A. Stadter

3 Historical Thought in Ancient Rome 60
J. E. Lendon

4 Historical Thought in Medieval Europe 78
Gabrielle M. Spiegel

5 Historical Thought in the Renaissance 99
Paula Findlen

PART II THE SHAPING OF MODERN WESTERN HISTORICAL THOUGHT

6 Historical Thought in the Era of the Enlightenment 123
Johnson Kent Wright

7 German Historical Thought in the Age of Herder, Kant, and Hegel 143
Harold Mah

8 German Historical Writing from Ranke to Weber: The Primacy of Politics 166
Harry Liebersohn

9 National History in the Age of Michelet, Macaulay, and Bancroft 185
Thomas N. Baker

10 Marxism and Historical Thought 205
Walter L. Adamson

PART III PATTERNS IN TWENTIETH–CENTURY WESTERN HISTORICAL THOUGHT

11 The Professionalization of Historical Studies and the Guiding Assumptions of Modern Historical Thought 225
Georg G. Iggers

12 The History of Armed Power 243
Peter Paret

13 Total History and Microhistory: The French and Italian Paradigms 262
David A. Bell

14 Anthropology and the History of Culture 277
William M. Reddy

15 The History of Science, Or, an Oxymoronic Theory of Relativistic Objectivity 297
Ken Alder

16 Language, Literary Studies, and Historical Thought 319
Susan A. Crane

17 Psychology, Psychoanalysis, and Historical Thought 337
Lynn Hunt

18 Redefining Historical Identities: Sexuality, Gender, and the Self 357
Carolyn J. Dean

19 Historicizing Natural Environments: The Deep Roots of Environmental History 372
Andrew C. Isenberg

PART IV CHALLENGES TO THE BOUNDARIES OF WESTERN HISTORICAL THOUGHT

20 The New World History 393
Jerry H. Bentley

21 Postcolonial History 417
Prasenjit Duara

22 The Multicultural History of Nations 432
Donna R. Gabaccia

23 New Technologies and Historical Knowledge 447
James M. Murray

24 The Visual Media and Historical Knowledge 466
Robert A. Rosenstone

Consolidated Bibliography 482

Index 495

O autorze

Lloyd Kramer is Professor of History at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. His previous publications include Threshold of a New World: Intellectuals and the Exile Experience in Paris, 1830–1848 (1988), Lafayette in Two Worlds: Public Cultures and Personal Identities in an Age of Revolutions (1996), and Nationalism: Political Cultures in Europe and America, 1775–1865 (1998).

Sarah Maza is Jane Long Professor of Arts and Sciences at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. She is the author of Servants and Masters in Eighteenth–century France (1983) and Private Lives and Public Affairs: The Causes Célèbres of Pre–Revolutionary France (1993).

Blurb

This broad survey introduces readers to the major themes, figures, traditions and theories in Western historical thought, tracing its evolution from biblical times to the present.

The volume comprises 24 chapters by leading historians who discuss conceptions of and approaches to the human past in the ancient, medieval, early modern and modern West, stressing the long–term patterns and traditions in historical thinking that survive to this day. Chapters range from overviews of eras in the history of historical thought, to discussions of new methods that historians have drawn from other disciplines and of new historical subjects, such as gender, sexuality, selfhood, and natural environments. The volume concludes with essays on contemporary challenges to classic, Western definitions of history that have emerged in global history, multiculturalism, post–colonialism, and new technologies.

For students, this Companion provides the background they need in order to understand contemporary historical debates and approaches, while for researchers and teachers it will serve as a useful reference work.