In defense of history / Richard J. Evans.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Evans, Richard J.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

History--Philosophy.

History.

Historiography.

History--Study and teaching.

Physical Description:

287 pages ; 21 cm

Edition:

Norton paperback.

Place of Publication:

New York : W.W. Norton, 2000.

Summary:

E. H. Carr's What Is History? a classic introduction to the field may now give way to a worthy successor. In his compact, intriguing survey. Richard J Evans shows us how historians manage to extract meaning from the recalcitrant past. To materials that are frustratingly meager or overwhelmingly profuse, they bring an array of tools that range from agreed-upon rules of documentation and powerful computer models to the skilled investigator's sudden insight all employed with the aim of reconstructing a verifiable usable past. Evans defends this commitment to historical knowledge from the attacks of postmodernist critics who see all judgments as subjective.

Evans brings "a remarkable range a nose for the archives a taste for controversy, and a fluent pen" The New Republic to this splendid work.

Contents:

The history of history

History, science, and morality

Historians and their facts

Sources and discourses

Causation in history

Society and the individual

Knowledge and power

Objectivity and its limits.

Notes:

Originally published: 1999.

Includes bibliographical references (pages [221]-251) and index.

Local Notes:

Gift of Mr. & Mrs. Sheldon Hackney.

ISBN:

0393046877

9780393046878

0393319598

9780393319590

OCLC:

44260994