English Pasts: Essays in History and Culture

by Stefan Collini

Overview

This is an accessible collection of essays by a leading historian and critic. Subjects include the idea of "the national past," the historian as social critic, the claims of Cultural Studies, the nature of academic "research," the function of the literary biography, and the lives and ideas of such figures as Charles Darwin, John Stuart Mill, Anthony Trollope, George Eliot, Bertrand Russell, R. H. Tawney, Isaiah Berlin, Raymond Williams, and Richard Hoggart.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780198207801
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	05/27/1999
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	360
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Clare College, Cambridge

Table of Contents

IntroductionPart I: Histories1. Writing ‘the National History': Trevelyan and After2. French Contrasts: From the Panthéon to Poets' Corner3. Idealizing England: Élie Halévy and Lewis Namier4. Speaking With Authority: The Historian as Social Critic5. Victorian Values: from the Clapham Sect to the Clapham OmnibusPart II: Minds6. High Mind: John Stuart Mill7. Literary Minds: Anthony Trollope and George Eliot8. Young Minds: Charles Darwin and Bertrand Russell9. Moral Mind: R. H. Tawney10. Liberal Mind: Isaiah Berlin11. Critical Minds: Raymond Williams and Richard HoggartPart III: Arguments12. Against Prodspeak: ‘Research' in the Humanities13. Grievance Studies: How not to do Cultural Criticism14. Company Histories: CamU PLC and SocAnth Ltd15. With Friends Like These: John Carey and Noel Annan16. Before Another Tribunal : the Idea of the ‘Non-specialist Public'Acknowledgements and ReferencesIndex

Editorial Reviews

"[T]he arguments are important, provoking, and driven along by an acerbic wit. it will be read with profit by scholars, students, and anyone else interested in the questions it raises....[I]t made me ponder and it made me laugh—out loud."—History

From the Publisher