A Companion to Western Historical Thought

by Kramer, Lloyd; Maza, Sarah

• ISBN13: 9781405149617
• ISBN10: 1405149612
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-06-23
• 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
Lloyd Kramer and Sarah Maza	1	(14)
PART I THE PRE-MODERN ORIGINS OF WESTERN HISTORICAL THOUGHT
1 Historiography in Ancient Israel
John Van Seters	15	(20)
2 Historical Thought in Ancient Greece
Philip A. Stadter	35	(25)
3 Historical Thought in Ancient Rome
J.E. Lendon	60	(18)
4 Historical Thought in Medieval Europe
Gabrielle M. Spiegel	78	(21)
5 Historical Thought in the Renaissance
Paula Findlen	99	(24)
PART II THE SHAPING OF MODERN WESTERN HISTORICAL THOUGHT
6 Historical Thought in the Era of the Enlightenment
Johnson Kent Wright	123	(20)
7 German Historical Thought in the Age of Herder, Kant, and Hegel
Harold Mah	143	(23)
8 German Historical Writing from Ranke to Weber: The Primacy of Politics
Harry Liebersohn	166	(19)
9 National History in the Age of Michelet, Macaulay, and Bancroft
Thomas N. Baker	185	(20)
10 Marxism and Historical Thought
Walter L. Adamson	205	(20)
PART III PATTERNS IN TWENTIETH-CENTURY WESTERN HISTORICAL THOUGHT
11 The Professionalization of Historical Studies and the Guiding Assumptions of Modern Historical Thought
Georg G. Iggers	225	(18)
12 The History of Armed Power
Peter Paret	243	(19)
13 Total History and Microhistory: The French and Italian Paradigms
David A. Bell	262	(15)
14 Anthropology and the History of Culture
William M. Reddy	277	(20)
15 The History of Science, Or, an Oxymoronic Theory of Relativistic Objectivity
Ken Alder	297	(22)
16 Language, Literary Studies, and Historical Thought
Susan A. Crane	319	(18)
17 Psychology, Psychoanalysis, and Historical Thought
Lynn Hunt	337	(20)
18 Redefining Historical Identities: Sexuality, Gender, and the Self
Carolyn J. Dean	357	(15)
19 Historicizing Natural Environments: The Deep Roots of Environmental History
Andrew C. Isenberg	372	(21)
PART IV CHALLENGES TO THE BOUNDARIES OF WESTERN HISTORICAL THOUGHT
20 The New World History
Jerry H. Bentley	393	(24)
21 Postcolonial History
Prasenjit Duara	417	(15)
22 The Multicultural History of Nations
Donna R. Gabaccia	432	(15)
23 New Technologies and Historical Knowledge
James M. Murray	447	(19)
24 The Visual Media and Historical Knowledge
Robert A. Rosenstone	466	(16)
Consolidated Bibliography	482	(13)
Index	495