This new title is a totally rewritten version of The Nature of History, first published in 1970, with revised editions in 1981, and again in 1989. Addressing the key questions of what history is, and why and how one studies it, this is a positive affirmation of the vital importance to society of the study of the past, and of the many crucial learning outcomes which accrue from historical study. There is a great deal of new material, engaging with and rebutting postmodernist criticisms of the history of the historians, and explicating more fully the author's pioneering work on how exactly historians analyze and interpret primary sources, and how they write their articles and books. This is a book for all readers interested in history, and for students and writers of history at all levels.
Preface
Introduction: The Battle of Basic Assumptions
History: Essential Knowledge about the Past
How the Discipline of History Evolved: From Thucydides to Langlois and Seignobos
How the Discipline of History Evolved through the Twentieth into the Twenty-first Century
The Historian at Work: Forget 'Facts', Foreground Sources
The Historian at Work: The Communication of Historical Knowledge
Theory, the Sciences, the Humanities
Conclusion: Crisis, What Crisis?
Appendix A: An Example of Learning Outcomes for a History Degree
Appendix B: Examples of Aims and Objectives
Appendix C: Writing History
Appendix D: Glossary
Further Reading
Index.
