Companion to Historiography / Edition 1

by Michael Bentley

Overview

The Companion to Historiography is an original analysis of the moods and trends in historical writing throughout its phases of development and explores the assumptions and procedures that have formed the creation of historical perspectives. Contributed by a distinguished panel of academics, each essay conveys in direct, jargon-free language a genuinely international, wide-angled view of the ideas, traditions and institutions that lie behind the contemporary urgency of world history.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780415030847
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	06/19/1997
Series:	Routledge Companion Encyclopedias
Pages:	1016
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.19(h) x (d)

About the Author

Michael Bentley is Professor of Modern History at the University of St Andrews. He has written extensively on Modern British History and teaches courses in historiography and historical theory.

Table of Contents

Introduction: The Project of Historiography Section 1: Beginnings - East and West Introduction 1.1 Asian Historiography: Two Traditions 1.2 Historiography and Greek Self-Definition .3 Re-Reading the Roman Historians 1.4 The Historiography of Rural Labour 1.5 Towards Late-Antiquity Section 2: The Medieval World Introduction 2.1 The Historiography of the Medieval State 2.2 Saladin and the Third Crusade 2.3 Family and Household 2.4 The Medieval Nobility 2.5 Armies and Warfare 2.6 Popular Religion Section 3: Early-Modern Historiography Introduction 3.1 The Idea of Early Modern History 3.2 The Scientific Revolution 3.3 Intellectual History 3.4 The English Reformation 3.5 Popular Culture in the Early-Modern West 3.6 Revisionism in Britain Section 4: Reflecting on the Modern Age Introduction I: Revolution and Ideology 4.1 The French Revolution 4.2 The Soviet Revolution 4.3 National Socialism in Germany 4.4 Fascism and Beyond in Italy 4.5 Orientalism London: II Area Studies 4.6 China 4.7 Japan 4.8 India 4.9 Africa 4.10 North America 4.11 Latin America Section 5: Contexts for the Writing of History I: Hinterlands 5.1 History and Philosophy 5.2 History and Anthropology 5.3 History and Archaeology 5.4 History of Art II: Approaches 5.5 The Historical Narrative 5.6 The Annales School 5.7 Marxist Historiography 5.8 Women in Historiography 5.9 Comparative World History 5.10 Archives and Technology

Editorial Reviews

'Can one survey all historical writing, past and present, in a volume of 1,000 pages? Can one get 40 contributors all to write with clarity and concision? Can one not only recount the great debates over the merits of the scholarship of, say, Christopher Hill or Edward Said, but also trace the development of the philosophy of history? The answer to all these questions is yes, thanks to the consumate skill of Bentley and his colleagues. Historians, whatever their specialities, can read this book with profit and pleasure.' - Choice

'This collection of 40 essays will provide both librarians and their patrons with an invaluable insight into the nature and practice of history at the end of the millenium. The long, discursive essays will fill an important gap for a wide range of public and academic librarians, historians, graduate students and senior undergraduates.' - Feliciter (Magazine of Canadian Library Association)

'General readers with serious historical interests will find much to fascinate them in this book ... a rich and multifarious volume.' - Sunday Telegraph

'A valuable addition to academic reference collections.' - Library Journal

'This book's strength is that it contains essays on periods as far distant as ancient Greece and China, and as recent as post-1945 America ... [and] features a whole host of references at the end of each essay.' - Library Association Record

'Not only are the essays wide ranging in themselves, offering insights into contemporary historiography, not readily found within hard covers ... they are also extremely well documented and equipped with very respectable bibliographies. No large general reference library or special collection supporting history-oriented undergraduate and postgraduate courses or research, can afford to pass by this substantial volume.' - Reference Reviews

'Make no mistake this book is phenomenally ambitious ... Michael Bentley and all his contributors must be applauded warmly for their most extensive efforts.' - History Review

From the Publisher

...thanks to the consummate skill of Bentley and his colleagues. Historians, whatever their specialties, can read this book with profit and pleasure.

Choice

This unique reference work provides a general guide to the study of the way history has been written, offering 45 substantial essays that examine the techniques, approaches, and biases that have influenced historians to the present. Editor Bentley (modern history, Univ. of St. Andrews, Scotland) divides the volume by period and examines the writing of history from both Western and Eastern perspectives. Each section begins with an introductory overview of the time period and then includes several essays on events or topics. The volume ends with a section on nonperiod issues and approaches to history. One problem with many of the essays is the targeting of an English-speaking market; if a history has not been translated into English, it is generally not includeda serious drawback for those interested in the construction of the histories of, say, Latin America and Asia. Still, this product of the British academic community contains a range of informative, though not particularly innovative, essays in a single volume. A valuable addition to academic reference collections.Mark L. Grover, Brigham Young Univ., Provo, Utah

Library Journal

A reference on the study of the study of the past, presenting essay length analysis rather than the brief dictionary-like entries of other such works. British and American academics in such fields as history, Asian studies, philosophy, archaeology, and anthropology cover the beginnings of historigraphical traditions in the east and west, the Medieval world, early modern historiography, reflections on revolution and ideology and Asian studies in the modern age, and hinterlands and approaches as contexts for the writing of history. Each section includes a substantial introduction. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

Booknews