A Companion to Western Historical Thought

by Kramer, Lloyd; Maza, Sarah

• ISBN13: 9780631217145
• ISBN10: 0631217142
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-03-29
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Summary

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.

Author Biography

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).

Table of Contents

List of Contributors	viii
Acknowledgments	xii
Introduction: The Cultural History of Historical Thought	1	(14)
Lloyd Kramer
Sarah Maza
Part I The Pre-Modern Origins of Western Historical Thought
Historiography in Ancient Israel	15	(20)
John Van Seters
Historical Thought in Ancient Greece	35	(25)
Philip A. Stadter
Historical Thought in Ancient Rome	60	(18)
J. E. Lendon
Historical Thought in Medieval Europe	78	(21)
Gabrielle M. Spiegel
Historical Thought in the Renaissance	99	(24)
Paula Findlen
Part II The Shaping of Modern Western Historical Thought
Historical Thought in the Era of the Enlightenment	123	(20)
Johnson Kent Wright
German Historical Thought in the Age of Herder, Kant, and Hegel	143	(23)
Harold Mah
German Historical Writing from Ranke to Weber: The Primacy of Politics	166	(19)
Harry Liebersohn
National History in the Age of Michelet, Macaulay, and Bancroft	185	(20)
Thomas N. Baker
Marxism and Historical Thought	205	(20)
Walter L. Adamson
Part III Patterns in Twentieth-Century Western Historical Thought
The Professionalization of Historical Studies and the Guiding Assumptions of Modern Historical Thought	225	(18)
George G. Iggers
The History of Armed Power	243	(19)
Peter Paret
Total History and Microhistory: The French and Italian Paradigms	262	(15)
David A. Bell
Anthropology and the History of Culture	277	(20)
William M. Reddy
The History of Science, Or, an Oxymoronic Theory of Relativistic Objectivity	297	(22)
Ken Alder
Language, Literary Studies, and Historical Thought	319	(18)
Susan A. Crane
Psychology, Psychoanalysis, and Historical Thought	337	(20)
Lynn Hunt
Redefining Historical Identities: Sexuality, Gender, and the Self	357	(15)
Carolyn J. Dean
Hiscoricizing Natural Environments: The Deep Roots of Environmental History	372	(21)
Andrew C. Isenberg
Part IV Challenges to the Boundaries of Western Historical Thought
The New World History	393	(24)
Jerry H. Bentley
Postcolonial History	417	(15)
Prasenjit Duara
The Multicultural History of Nations	432	(15)
Donna R. Gabaccia
New Technologies and Historical Knowledge	447	(19)
James M. Murray
The Visual Media and Historical Knowledge	466	(16)
Robert A. Rosenstone
Consolidated Bibliography	482	(13)
Index	495