Ten Great Events in HistoryHistory buffs love to immerse themselves in the details of past eras. But sometimes, one can get bogged down in the minutia of times gone by and fail to grasp the significance of the bigger picture. This volume from historian James Johonnot is the antidote to overly compartmentalized history texts, offering a broad perspective on the major events that coalesced to shape the world we live in.
What Happened to History?This original study explores the development of the postmodern turn in history, brought on by the social, political and cultural changes of the 1970s and 1980s. Challenging notions of certainty and objectivity, postmodernism has questioned traditional models and methods in studying history. A timely intervention in an increasingly contentious area, this book evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of postmodern history. Beginning with a brief account of historiography as an academic discipline, with its origins in the'scientific historiography'of the nineteenth century, Willie Thompson charts the growth and development of the historical method in the twentieth century. He examines the impact of Marxist historiography, particularly in Britain and the United States, and the emergence of new approaches to history exemplified by the work of E.P. Thompson and others. In addition, Thompson assesses the impact of feminist, black and minority history.
Cultural History
Dreaming of Dixie : How the South Was Created in American Popular CultureFrom the late nineteenth century through World War II, popular culture portrayed the American South as a region ensconced in its antebellum past, draped in moonlight and magnolias, and represented by such southern icons as the mammy, the belle, the chivalrous planter, white-columned mansions, and even bolls of cotton. In Dreaming of Dixie, Karen Cox shows that the chief purveyors of nostalgia for the Old South were outsiders of the region, playing to consumers' anxiety about modernity by marketing the South as a region still dedicated to America's pastoral traditions. In addition, Cox examines how southerners themselves embraced the imaginary romance of the region's past.
Making Cultural History : New Perspectives on Western HeritageThis volume contains 17 essays with fresh new approaches to cultural history from 17 authors that belong to different academic disciplines, including archaeology, art history, classical languages, ethnology, fashion studies, history, history of ideas, history of religion, literature studies, and media studies.
Quest West : American Intellectual and Cultural TransformationsFew spaces remain as central to American consciousness as the western frontier. The vast territory, which for generations fueled the desires and conquests of artists, philosophers, and politicians alike, now offers new discoveries in Richard Lehan's Quest West. Through an intellectual and cultural history of the frontier experience, Lehan details the transformations of ideas and literary forms that occurred as the country expanded to the west and demonstrates how the wilderness, and then by turn the urban frontier, represent an ideological summary of the nation itself.
The American Dream : A Cultural HistoryThere is no better way to understand America than by understanding the cultural history of the American Dream. Rather than just a powerful philosophy or ideology, the Dream is thoroughly woven into the fabric of everyday life, playing a vital role in who we are, what we do, and why we do it. No other idea or mythology has as much influence on our individual and collective lives. Tracing the history of the phrase in popular culture, Samuel gives readers a field guide to the evolution of our national identity over the last eighty years
The Crisis of ModernityIn his native Italy Augusto Del Noce is regarded as one of the preeminent political thinkers and philosophers of the period after the Second World War. The Crisis of Modernity makes available for the first time in English a selection of Del Noce's essays and lectures on the cultural history of the twentieth century. Del Noce maintained that twentieth-century history must be understood specifically as a philosophical history, because Western culture was profoundly affected by the major philosophies of the previous century such as idealism, Marxism, and positivism.
The Cultural ReturnThis insightful book tracks the concept of culture across a range of scholarly disciplines and much of the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries—years that saw the emergence of new fields and subfields (cultural studies, the new cultural history, literary new historicism, as well as ethnic and minority studies) and came to be called'the cultural turn.'Since the 1990s, however, the idea of culture has fallen out of scholarly favor. Susan Hegeman engages with a diversity of disciplines, including anthropology, literary studies, sociology, philosophy, psychology, and political science, to historicize the rise and fall of the cultural turn and to propose ways that culture may still be a vital concept in the global present.
The Deepest Sense : A Cultural History of TouchFrom the softest caress to the harshest blow, touch lies at the heart of our experience of the world. Now, for the first time, this deepest of senses is the subject of an extensive historical exploration. The Deepest Sense: A Cultural History of Touch fleshes out our understanding of the past with explorations of lived experiences of embodiment from the middle ages to modernity. This intimate and sensuous approach to history makes it possible to foreground the tactile foundations of Western culture--the ways in which feelings shaped society.
Theorising Performance : Greek Drama, Cultural History and Critical PracticeThis exciting collection constitutes the first analysis of the modern performance of ancient Greek drama from a theoretical perspective. The last three decades have seen a remarkable revival of the performance of ancient Greek drama; some ancient plays -'Sophocles','Oedipus','Euripides', and'Medea'- have established a distinguished place in the international performance repertoire, and attracted eminent directors including Peter Stein, Ariane Mnouchkine, Peter Sellars, and Katie Mitchell.
Diplomatic History
Crisis and WarHis analysis suggests that certain explanations have not been sufficiently considered in previous works. For example, prior domestic strife can be linked to the escalation of foreign conflict in an impressive number of cases, a discovery which runs counter to the consensus which has emerged over the last two decades among political scientists. Prior research on causes of war has often lacked rigour. James has tried to remedy this through a long-term, comparative approach to the subject matter. While Crisis and War follows the tradition of aggregate research, statistical analysis is always connected to particular events through discussions of situations and leaders in both diplomatic history and contemporary world politics. James' comprehensive and original approach to past theories both clarifies and critiques them.
Entangled Geographies : Empire and Technopolitics in the Global Cold WarThe Cold War was not simply a duel of superpowers. It took place not just in Washington and Moscow but also in the social and political arenas of geographically far-flung countries emerging from colonial rule. Moreover, Cold War tensions were manifest not only in global political disputes but also in struggles over technology. Technological systems and expertise offered a powerful way to shape countries politically, economically, socially, and culturally. Entangled Geographies explores how Cold War politics, imperialism, and postcolonial nation building became entangled in technologies and considers the legacies of those entanglements for today's globalized world.
Guide to U.S. Foreign Policy : A Diplomatic HistoryAt no time in American history has an understanding of the role and the art of diplomacy in international relations been more essential than it is today. Both the history of U.S. diplomatic relations and the current U.S. foreign policy in the twenty-first century are major topics of study and interest across the nation and around the world. Spanning the entire history of American diplomacy—from the First Continental Congress to the war on terrorism to the foreign policy goals of the twenty-first century—Guide to U.S. Foreign Policy traces not only the growth and development of diplomatic policies and traditions but also the shifts in public opinion that shape diplomatic trends. This comprehensive, two-volume reference shows how the United States gained “the strength of a giant” and also analyzes key world events that have determined the United States 'changing relations with other nations.
Business and Polity : Dynamics of a Changing RelationshipBusiness and Polity explores, through a variety of economic and political formations over the past two and a half millennia, right from the Greco-Roman civilization to present day globalization, the behaviour of two power networks: those who control the levers of political power and those who engage themselves in wealth-generating activities. It traces the dynamics of interdependence between these two powerful networks and what happens when one or the other becomes more powerful. The rational and logical approach taken by the author reveals the links that our modern state of affairs has with the experience of past civilizations-knowledge that can potentially enhance our ability to make informed decisions to shape the global future.
Reclaiming Public Ownership : Making Space for Economic DemocracyThe last few years have seen the spectacular failure of market fundamentalism in Europe and the US, with a seemingly never-ending spate of corporate scandals and financial crises. As the environmental limits and socially destructive tendencies of the current profit-driven economic model become daily more self-evident, there is a growing demand for a fairer economic alternative, as evidenced by the mounting campaigns against global finance and the politics of austerity. Reclaiming Public Ownership tackles these issues head on, going beyond traditional leftist arguments about the relative merits of free markets and central planning to present a radical new conception of public ownership, framed around economic democracy and public participation in economic decision-making. Cumbers argues that a reconstituted public ownership is central to the creation of a more just and sustainable society.
Reconceptualizing the Industrial RevolutionThis collection of essays offers new perspectives on the Industrial Revolution as a global phenomenon. The fifteen contributors go beyond the longstanding view of industrialization as a linear process marked by discrete stages. Instead, they examine a lengthy and creative period in the history of industrialization, 1750 to 1914, reassessing the nature of and explanations for England's industrial primacy, and comparing significant industrial developments in countries ranging from China to Brazil. Each chapter explores a distinctive national production ecology, a complex blend of natural resources, demographic pressures, cultural impulses, technological assets, and commercial practices.
Revitalizing Marxist Theory for Today's CapitalismAs a few alert mainstream and corporate economists rediscover the certain elements of Marx's analysis of capitalism, the essays in the first part of this volume demonstrate that they have far to go. To their discredit, mainstream understandings whether of capitalism's growth or of Western capitalism's interrelated long-term stagnation and financialization are derailed precisely by political aversion to, or ignorance of, Marxist categories and analyses.
Russia : A Long ViewIt is not so easy to take the long view of socioeconomic history when you are participating in a revolution. For that reason, Russian economist Yegor Gaidar put aside an early version of this work to take up a series of government positions--as Minister of Finance and as Boris Yeltsin's acting Prime Minister--in the early 1990s. In government, Gaidar shepherded Russia through its transition to a market economy after years of socialism. Once out of government, Gaidar turned again to his consideration of Russia's economic history and long-term economic and political challenges. This book, revised and updated shortly before his death in 2009, is the result.
Selfishness, Greed and Capitalism : Debunking Myths About the Free MarketThis IEA publication deals head-on with a number of widely quoted myths about the market economy. In the case of the philosophical myths, such as the idea that economists believe that everybody is greedy, the author, Christopher Snowdon, carefully and entertainingly unpicks the misguided ideas that have taken hold. The author then moves on and effectively disposes of a number of economic myths using empirical evidence that is often ignored by commentators.
The Measure of Civilization : How Social Development Decides the Fate of NationsIn the last thirty years, there have been fierce debates over how civilizations develop and why the West became so powerful. The Measure of Civilization presents a brand-new way of investigating these questions and provides new tools for assessing the long-term growth of societies. Using a groundbreaking numerical index of social development that compares societies in different times and places, award-winning author Ian Morris sets forth a sweeping examination of Eastern and Western development across 15,000 years since the end of the last ice age. He offers surprising conclusions about when and why the West came to dominate the world and fresh perspectives for thinking about the twenty-first century
Dictionary of Environmental History, AProfessor Whyte's A Dictionary of Environmental History provides in a single volume a comprehensive reference work covering the past 12,000 years of the Earth's environmental history. An introduction to the discipline is followed by almost 1,000 entries covering key terminology, events, places, dates, topics, as well as the major personalities in the history of the discipline. Entries range from shorter factual accounts to substantial mini-essays on key topics and issues. Fully cross-referenced with an extensive bibliography, this pioneering work provides an authoritative yet accessible resource that will form essential reading for academics, practitioners and students of environmental history and related disciplines.
Car Country : An Environmental HistoryFor most people in the United States, going almost anywhere begins with reaching for the car keys. This is true, Christopher Wells argues, because the United States is Car Country�a nation dominated by landscapes that are difficult, inconvenient, and often unsafe to navigate by those who are not sitting behind the wheel of a car.The prevalence of car-dependent landscapes seems perfectly natural to us today, but it is, in fact, a relatively new historical development. In Car Country, Wells rejects the idea that the nation's automotive status quo can be explained as a simple byproduct of an ardent love affair with the automobile.
Cities : An Environmental HistoryCities are amongst our greatest creations. Yet at the start of the twenty-first century there is increasing concern over their unchecked expansion and the detrimental effect this is having on the planet, as induced climate change and ever increasing demands upon the world's resources take effect. How can we make the world's cities more sustainable? Ian Douglas tells the story of cities – why they exist, how they have evolved, the problems they have encountered and those they will face as our century progresses. Global in geographical coverage, and ranging from the cities of the classical world to the megacities of today, it is the first comprehensive environmental history of cities. Suitable as a textbook for undergraduate and master's course in environmental management, environmental science, planning, urban geography, planning.
Common Ground : Integrating the Social and Environmental in HistoryToday's environmental problems—climate change, loss of biodiversity, polluted air, land, and water—all have their origins to a greater or lesser extent in how we have lived, played and worked. At a time when societies are confronted with the often dramatic consequences of past choices made in the fields of energy, technology, industry, agriculture, urbanisation and consumption, we need a history that casts more light on the ways in which unsustainable human-nature relationships came into being. This means forging stronger connections between social and environmental history. Common Ground opens up a dialogue between two sub-disciplines that to date have remained largely parallel endeavours, bringing together both established and younger scholars from both fields to explore how people's everyday lives have connected to their environments—and with what effects
Exploring Environmental History : Selected EssaysThis volume brings together the best of T. C. Smout's recent articles and contributions to books and journals on the topic of environmental history and offers them as a collection of'explorations'. The author's interests are multi-faceted and, though often focussed on post-1600 Scotland, by no means restricted to that area.
Guide to U.S. Environmental PolicyGuide to U.S. Environmental Policy provides the analytical connections showing readers how issues and actions are translated into public policies and persistent institutions for resolving or managing environmental conflict in the U.S. The guide highlights a complex decision-making cycle that requires the cooperation of government, business, and an informed citizenry to achieve a comprehensive approach to environmental protection. The
Japan at Nature's Edge : The Environmental Context of a Global PowerJapan at Nature's Edge is a timely collection of essays that explores the relationship between Japan's history, culture, and physical environment. It greatly expands the focus of previous work on Japanese modernization by examining Japan's role in global environmental transformation and how Japanese ideas have shaped bodies and landscapes over the centuries. Given the global and immediate nature of Earth's environmental crisis, a predicament highlighted by Japan's March 2011 disaster, it brings a sense of urgency to the study of Japan and its global connections.The work is an environmental history in the broadest sense of the term because it contains writing by environmental anthropologists, a legendary Japanese economist, and scholars of Japanese literature and culture
Loving Nature, Fearing the State : Environmentalism and Antigovernment Politics Before ReaganA'conservative environmental tradition'in America may sound like a contradiction in terms, but as Brian Allen Drake shows in Loving Nature, Fearing the State, right-leaning politicians and activists have shaped American environmental consciousness since the environmental movement's beginnings. In this wide-ranging history, Drake explores the tensions inherent in balancing an ideology dedicated to limiting the power of government with a commitment to protecting treasured landscapes and ecological health. Drake argues that 'antistatist' beliefs--an individualist ethos and a mistrust of government--have colored the American passion for wilderness but also complicated environmental protection efforts.
New Natures : Joining Environmental History with Science and Technology StudiesNew Natures broadens the dialogue between the disciplines of science and technology studies (STS) and environmental history in hopes of deepening and even transforming understandings of human-nature interactions. The volume presents richly developed historical studies that explicitly engage with key STS theories, offering models for how these theories can help crystallize central lessons from empirical histories, facilitate comparative analysis, and provide a language for complicated historical phenomena. Overall, the collection exemplifies the fruitfulness of cross-disciplinary thinking.
Revealed Biodiversity: An Economic History Of The Human ImpactRevealed Biodiversity: An Economic History of the Human Impact aims to show that for several centuries environmental conditions have been substantially the product of economic fluctuations. It contests the notion of perpetual decline in species composition. The arguments are supported by far more precise historical detail than is usual in books about ecology. The need to take the gains to human society into account when assessing environmental change is strongly emphasized. The book features case studies including England, the Netherlands, USA, East Asia, Brazil, and the areas of modern agricultural ‘land grab'.
Rooted in the Earth : Reclaiming the African American Environmental HeritageWith a basis in environmental history, this groundbreaking study challenges the idea that a meaningful attachment to nature and the outdoors is contrary to the black experience. The discussion shows that contemporary African American culture is usually seen as an urban culture, one that arose out of the Great Migration and has contributed to international trends in fashion, music, and the arts ever since. But because of this urban focus, many African Americans are not at peace with their rich but tangled agrarian legacy. On one hand, the book shows, nature and violence are connected in black memory, especially in disturbing images such as slave ships on the ocean, exhaustion in the fields, dogs in the woods, and dead bodies hanging from trees. In contrast, though, there is also a competing tradition of African American stewardship of the land that should be better known
The Environment and World HistorySince around 1500 C.E., humans have shaped the global environment in ways that were previously unimaginable. Bringing together leading environmental historians and world historians, this book offers an overview of global environmental history throughout this remarkable 500-year period. In eleven essays, the contributors examine the connections between environmental change and other major topics of early modern and modern world history: population growth, commercialization, imperialism, industrialization, the fossil fuel revolution, and more. Rather than attributing environmental change largely to European science, technology, and capitalism, the essays illuminate a series of culturally distinctive, yet often parallel developments arising in many parts of the world, leading to intensified exploitation of land and water.
The Environmental Moment : 1968-1972The Environmental Moment is a collection of documents that reveal the significance of the years 1968-1972 to the environmental movement in the United States. With material ranging from short pieces from the Whole Earth Catalog and articles from the Village Voice to lectures, posters, and government documents, the collection describes the period through the perspective of a diversity of participants, including activists, politicians, scientists, and average citizens. Included are the words of Rachel Carson, but also the National Review, Howard Zahniser on wilderness, Nathan Hare on the Black underclass. The chronological arrangement reveals the coincidence of a multitude of issues that rushed into public consciousness during a critical time in American history.
The Greenest Nation? : A New History of German EnvironmentalismGermany enjoys an enviably green reputation. Environmentalists in other countries applaud its strict environmental laws, its world-class green technology firms, its phase-out of nuclear power, and its influential Green Party. Germans are proud of these achievements, and environmentalism has become part of the German national identity. In The Greenest Nation? Frank Uekötter offers an overview of the evolution of German environmentalism since the late nineteenth century. He discusses, among other things, early efforts at nature protection and urban sanitation, the Nazi experience, and civic mobilization in the postwar years. He shows that much of Germany's green reputation rests on accomplishments of the 1980s, and emphasizes the mutually supportive roles of environmental nongovernmental organizations, corporations, and the state.
The Promise of Wilderness : American Environmental Politics Since 1964From Denali's majestic slopes to the Great Swamp of central New Jersey, protected wilderness areas make up nearly twenty percent of the parks, forests, wildlife refuges, and other public lands that cover a full fourth of the nation's territory. But wilderness is not only a place. It is also one of the most powerful and troublesome ideas in American environmental thought, representing everything from sublime beauty and patriotic inspiration to a countercultural ideal and an overextension of government authority. The Promise of Wilderness examines how the idea of wilderness has shaped the management of public lands since the passage of the Wilderness Act in 1964.
The Republic of Nature : An Environmental History of the United StatesIn the dramatic narratives that comprise The Republic of Nature, Mark Fiege reframes the canonical account of American history based on the simple but radical premise that nothing in the nation's past can be considered apart from the natural circumstances in which it occurred. By focusing on materials and processes intrinsic to all things and by highlighting the nature of the United States, Fiege recovers the forgotten and overlooked ground on which so much history has unfolded. In these pages, the nation's birth and development, pain and sorrow, ideals and enduring promise come to life as never before, making a once-familiar past seem new. The Republic of Nature points to a startlingly different version of history that calls on readers to reconnect with fundamental forces that shaped the American experience.
The Turning Points of Environmental HistoryFrom the time when humans first learned to harness fire, cultivate crops, and domesticate livestock, they have altered their environment as a means of survival. In the modern era, however, natural resources have been devoured and defiled in the wake of a consumerism that goes beyond mere subsistence. In this volume, an international group of environmental historians documents the significant ways in which humans have impacted their surroundings throughout history.
US Environmental History : Inviting DoomsdayIdentifies and explores a cast of'doomsday landscapes'that includes the Battle of the Wilderness in Virginia, the Santa Barbara Oil Spill, the'Fable for Tomorrow'town featured in Rachel Carson's Silent Spring (1962), and Nevada's Doom Towns 1 and 2 blown apart by atomic testing in the 1950s. He reflects on contemporary ruminations over whether nature as a category endures given both the rising contamination of the US landscape and consumer proclivity for celebrating fake mementos of the outdoors (such as plastic lawn flamingos and artificial plants). And most significantly, he poses the question of whether Americans have been inviting doomsday through their long-term environmental actions.
Overview
Historians
Historical Methods
Historiography
History Education
Military History
Public History
Social History
World History
Historians
A Passion for HistoryThe pathbreaking work of renowned historian Natalie Zemon Davis has added profoundly to our understanding of early modern society and culture. She rescues men and women from oblivion using her unique combination of rich imagination, keen intelligence, and archival sleuthing to uncover the past. Davis brings to life a dazzling cast of extraordinary people, revealing their thoughts, emotions, and choices in the world in which they lived. Thanks to Davis we can meet the impostor Arnaud du Tilh in her classic, The Return of Martin Guerre, follow three remarkable lives in Women on the Margins, and journey alongside a traveler and scholar in Trickster Travels as he moves between the Muslim and Christian worlds.
Becoming HistoriansIn this unique collection, the memoirs of eleven historians provide a fascinating portrait of a formative generation of scholars. Born around the time of World War II, these influential historians came of age just before the upheavals of the 1960s and 70s and helped to transform both their discipline and the broader world of American higher education. The self-inventions they thoughtfully chronicle led, in many cases, to the invention of new fields including women s and gender history, social history, and public history that cleared paths in the academy and made the study of the past more capacious and broadly relevant.
Last RitesTwenty years ago, John Lukacs paused to set down the history of his own thoughts and beliefs in Confessions of an Original Sinner, an adroit blend of autobiography and personal philosophy. Now, in Last Rites, he continues and expands his reflections, this time integrating his conception of history and human knowledge with private memories of his wives and loves, and enhancing the book with footnotes from his idiosyncratic diaries. The resulting volume is fascinating and delightfulan auto-history by a passionate, authentic, brilliant, and witty man.
The Historian Behind the History : Conversations with Southern HistoriansThe Historian behind the History brings together a collection of valuable interviews with prominent southern historians conducted over the course of a decade by graduate students in the University of Alabama's history program for the journal Southern History. The historians and their main topics include: Richard J. M. Blackett on antebellum and African American history Dan T. Carter on Reconstruction, Civil Rights, and George Wallace Pete Daniel on the New Deal and the Cold War South Laura F. Edwards on the Early Republic, the Civil War, Reconstruction, and women's history William W. Freehling on the antebellum South Gary W. Gallagher on the Civil War Glenda Elizabeth Gilmore on Jim Crow James M. McPherson on the Civil War Theodore Rosengarten on the Depression J. Mills Thornton III
The Ivory Tower and Beyond : Participant Historians of the PacificThere is a tradition of “participant history” among historians of the Pacific Islands, unafraid to show their hands on issues of public importance and risking controversy to make their voices heard. This book explores the theme of the participant historian by delving into the lives of J.C. Beaglehole, J.W. Davidson, Richard Gilson, Harry Maude and Brij V. Lal. They lived at the interface of scholarship and practical engagement in such capacities as constitutional advisers, defenders of civil liberties, or upholders of the principles of academic freedom.
Historical Controversies and HistoriansFor students new to the subject of history there are many books on the 'theory' of writing history but fewer on how history is actually 'practised'. This work by a team of historians from the University of Sussex fills this gap. The first half of the book examines a number of notable controversies that have been, and still are, the subject of historical debate - for example, race in South Africa, the legacy of the French Resistance, the origins of the Welfare State. These illustrate the issues involved in 'doing' history. The second half of the book focuses upon the historians themselves - such as Tawney, Carr, Buckhardt, Weber, Thompson - and demonstrates how the historian puts his/her own spin on historical interpretation. Together the study of controversies and historians shows with clarity the practical issues of historical method. 'Historical Controversies and Historians 'should be a useful primer for any student embarking on a course in history.
Historical Methods
After Poststructuralism : Writing the Intellectual History of TheoryEvery history of theory is simultaneously a theory of history. Rajan and O'Driscoll's wide-ranging volume tackles the issue of providing an intellectual history of theory, given a considerable continuity between theory and the history of ideas, and also given theory's own questioning of traditional intellectual historical models. The editors address this challenge by providing thirteen essays on a variety of theorists from Derrida to Zizek. Under the paradigms of genealogy, performativity, physiology, and technology, the essayists explore metaphors for connecting the work of theorists from different times, that are drawn from areas other than history, and that can enrich and revise our understanding of the histories of theory
Beyond the Archives : Research As a Lived ProcessThis collection of highly readable essays reveals that research is not restricted to library archives. When researchers pursue information and perspectives from sources beyond the archives—from existing people and places— they are often rewarded with unexpected discoveries that enrich their research and their lives. Beyond the Archives: Research as a Lived Process presents narratives that demystify and illuminate the research process by showing how personal experiences, family history, and scholarly research intersect. Editors Gesa E. Kirsch and Liz Rohan emphasize how important it is for researchers to tap into their passions, pursuing research subjects that attract their attention with creativity and intuition without limiting themselves to traditional archival sources and research methods.
Current Methods in Historical SemanticsInnovative, data-driven methods provide more rigorous and systematic evidence for the description and explanation of diachronic semantic processes. The volume systematises, reviews, and promotes a range of empirical research techniques and theoretical perspectives that currently inform work across the discipline of historical semantics. In addition to emphasising the use of new technology, the potential of current theoretical models (e.g. within variationist, sociolinguistic or cognitive frameworks) is explored along the way.
Fortunes of History : Historical Inquiry From Herder to HuizingaIn Fortunes of History Donald R. Kelley offers an authoritative examination of historical writing during the long nineteenth century ”the years from the French Revolution to those just after the First World War. He provides a comprehensive analysis of the theories and practices of British, French, German, Italian, and American schools of historical thought, their principal figures, and their distinctive methods and self-understandings. Kelley treats the modern traditions of European world and national historiography from the Enlightenment to the new histories” of the twentieth century, attending not only to major authors and schools but also to methods, scholarship, criticisms, controversies, ideological questions, and relations to other disciplines.
Historical Evidence and ArgumentHistorians know about the past because they examine the evidence. But what exactly is “evidence,” how do historians know what it means—and how can we trust them to get it right? Historian David Henige tackles such questions of historical reliability head-on in his skeptical, unsparing, and acerbically witty Historical Evidence and Argument. “Systematic doubt” is his watchword, and he practices what he preaches through a variety of insightful assessments of historical controversies—for example, over the dating of artifacts and the textual analysis of translated documents. Skepticism, Henige contends, forces us to recognize the limits of our knowledge, but is also a positive force that stimulates new scholarship to counter it.
Making History Count : A Primer in Quantitative Methods for HistoriansMaking History Count introduces the main quantitative methods used in historical research. The emphasis is on intuitive understanding and application of the concepts, rather than formal statistics; no knowledge of mathematics beyond simple arithmetic is required. The techniques are illustrated by applications in social, political, demographic and economic history. Students will learn to read and evaluate the application of the quantitative methods used in many books and articles, and to assess the historical conclusions drawn from them. They will also see how quantitative techniques can open up new aspects of an enquiry, and supplement and strengthen other methods of research.
Methods in Historical PragmaticsThis volume represents a timely collective review and assessment of what it is we do when we do English historical pragmatics or historical discourse analysis. The context for the volume is a critical assessment of the assumptions and practices defining the body of research conducted on the history of the English language from the perspective of historical pragmatics, broadly construed. The aim of the volume is to engage with matters of approach and method from different perspectives; accordingly, the contributions offer insights into earlier communicative practices, registers, and linguistic functions as gleaned from historical discourse. The essays are grouped according to their orientations within the scope of the study of language and meaning in historical texts, both literary and non-literary.
Oral Tradition As HistoryJan Vansina's 1961 book, Oral Tradition, was hailed internationally as a pioneering work in the field of ethno-history. Originally published in French, it was translated into English, Spanish, Italian, Arabic, and Hungarian. Reviewers were unanimous in their praise of Vansina's success in subjecting oral traditions to intense functional analysis. Now, Vansina—with the benefit of two decades of additional thought and research—has revised his original work substantially, completely rewriting some sections and adding much new material. The result is an essentially new work, indispensable to all students and scholars of history, anthropology, folklore, and ethno-history who are concerned with the transmission and potential uses of oral material.
The Historical Method of HerodotusHerodotus was the first writer in the West to conceive the value of creating a record of the recent past. He found a way to co-ordinate the often conflicting data of history, ethnology, and culture. The Historical Method of Herodotus explores the intellectual habits and the literary principles of this pioneer writer of prose. Donald Lateiner argues, against the perception that Herodotus'work seems amorphous and ill organized, that the Histories contain their own definition of historical significance. He examines patterns of presentation and literary structure in narratives, speeches, and direct communications to the reader, in short, the conventions and rhetoric of history as Herodotus created it.
The Landscape of History : How Historians Map the PastWhat is history and why should we study it? Is there such a thing as historical truth? Is history a science? One of the most accomplished historians at work today, John Lewis Gaddis, answers these and other questions in this short, witty, and humane book. The Landscape of History provides a searching look at the historian's craft, as well as a strong argument for why a historical consciousness should matter to us today. Gaddis points out that while the historical method is more sophisticated than most historians realize, it doesn't require unintelligible prose to explain. Like cartographers mapping landscapes, historians represent what they can never replicate. In doing so, they combine the techniques of artists, geologists, paleontologists, and evolutionary biologists.
The Truth of HistoryThe Truth of History presents a study of various historical explanations and interpretations and evaluates their success as accounts of the past. C. Behan McCullagh contests that the variety of historical interpretations and subjectivity does not exclude the possibility of their truth. Through an examination of the constraints of history, the author argues that although historical descriptions do not mirror the past they can correlate with it in a regular and definable way. Far from debating in the abstract and philosophical only, the author beds his argument in numerous illuminating concrete historical examples. The Truth of History explores a new position between the two extremes of believing that history perfectly represents the past and that history can tell us nothing true of the past.
Thinking Historically : Educating Students for the Twenty-first CenturyTwo simple but profound questions have preoccupied scholars since the establishment of history education over a century ago: what is historical thinking, and how do educators go about teaching it? In Thinking Historically, Stéphane Ltévesque examines these questions, focusing on what it means to think critically about the past. As students engage in a new century already characterized by global instability, uncertainty, and rivalry over claims about the past, present, and future, this study revisits enduring questions and aims to offer new and relevant answers.Drawing on a rich collection of personal, national, and international studies in history education, Ltévesque offers a coherent and innovative way of looking at how historical expertise in the domain intersects with the'pedagogy of history education
A Passion for Historye pathbreaking work of renowned historian Natalie Zemon Davis has added profoundly to our understanding of early modern society and culture. She rescues men and women from oblivion using her unique combination of rich imagination, keen intelligence, and archival sleuthing to uncover the past. Davis brings to life a dazzling cast of extraordinary people, revealing their thoughts, emotions, and choices in the world in which they lived. Thanks to Davis we can meet the impostor Arnaud du Tilh in her classic, The Return of Martin Guerre, follow three remarkable lives in Women on the Margins, and journey alongside a traveler and scholar in Trickster Travels as he moves between the Muslim and Christian worlds.
Historiography
(Re)visions of History in Language and FictionIn imagining history, one must inevitably rely on its textual representations, whether fictitious or supposedly “objective”, yet always subject to the constraints and conventions of textuality. Still, it is precisely by exploiting and consciously relying on the textual in the presentation of the past that contemporary authors, including politicians and makers of history, strive to provide it with current significance, emotional impact and universal meaning. The study of such attempts benefits from a variety of perspectives, encompassing not only classical, but also popular texts and media. An interdisciplinary collection of papers devoted to the issues of retelling, rewriting, and representation of the past in fiction and various text-types, this volume juxtaposes modern and post-modern understanding of collective versus personal history
Creating a Local Historical Book : Fiction and Non-fiction GenresDoes Your City or Region Have a Fascinating Story that needs to be told before it's forgotten? Yes, it does, and you can be the person to write it! In this short text, Tyler Tichelaar, author of My Marquette and The Marquette Trilogy, talks in a conversational format about how he became interested in writing both local history and regional and historical fiction and his research and writing process to bring his books to fruition.
Doing Oral HistoryOral history is vital to our understanding of the cultures and experiences of the past. Unlike written history, oral history forever captures people's feelings, expressions, and nuances of language. But what exactly is oral history? How reliable is the information gathered by oral history? And what does it take to become an oral historian? Donald A. Ritchie, a leading expert in the field, answers these questions and in particular, explains the principles and guidelines created by the Oral History Association to ensure the professional standards of oral historians. Doing Oral History has become one of the premier resources in oral history
Fortunes of History : Historical Inquiry From Herder to HuizingaIn Fortunes of History Donald R. Kelley offers an authoritative examination of historical writing during the long nineteenth century”the years from the French Revolution to those just after the First World War. He provides a comprehensive analysis of the theories and practices of British, French, German, Italian, and American schools of historical thought, their principal figures, and their distinctive methods and self-understandings.Kelley treats the modern traditions of European world and national historiography from the Enlightenment to the new histories” of the twentieth century, attending not only to major authors and schools but also to methods, scholarship, criticisms, controversies, ideological questions, and relations to other disciplines.
Framing Public MemoryA collection of essays by prominent scholars from many disciplines on the construction of public memories. The study of public memory has grown rapidly across numerous disciplines in recent years, among them American studies, history, philosophy, sociology, architecture, and communications. As scholars probe acts of collective remembrance, they have shed light on the cultural processes of memory. Essays contained in this volume address issues such as the scope of public memory, the ways we forget, the relationship between politics and memory, and the material practices of memory. Stephen Browne's contribution studies the alternative to memory erasure, silence, and forgetting as posited by Hannah Arendt in her classic Eichmann in Jerusalem
Historical Controversies and HistoriansFor students new to the subject of history there are many books on the 'theory' of writing history but fewer on how history is actually 'practised'. This work by a team of historians from the University of Sussex fills this gap. The first half of the book examines a number of notable controversies that have been, and still are, the subject of historical debate - for example, race in South Africa, the legacy of the French Resistance, the origins of the Welfare State. These illustrate the issues involved in 'doing'history. The second half of the book focuses upon the historians themselves - such as Tawney, Carr, Buckhardt, Weber, Thompson - and demonstrates how the historian puts his/her own spin on historical interpretation. Together the study of controversies and historians shows with clarity the practical issues of historical method. 'Historical Controversies and Historians 'should be a useful primer for any student embarking on a course in history.
Historical Discourse : The Language of Time, Cause and EvaluationHistorical Discourse analyses the importance of the language of time, cause and evaluation in both texts which students at secondary school are required to read, and their own writing for assessment. In contrast to studies which have denied that history has a specialised language, Caroline Coffin demonstrates through a detailed study of historical texts, that writing about the past requires different genres, lexical and grammatical structures. In this analysis, language emerges as a powerful tool for making meaning in historical writing. Presupposing no prior knowledge of systemic functional linguistics, this insightful book will be of interest to researchers in applied linguistics and discourse analysis, as well as history educators.
Historiography: An Introductory Guide'What is historiography?'asked the American historian Carl Becker in 1938. Professional historians continue to argue over the meaning of the term. This book challenges the view of historiography as an esoteric subject by presenting an accessible and concise overview of the history of historical writing from the Renaissance to the present. Historiography plays an integral role in aiding undergraduate students to better understand the nature and purpose of historical analysis more generally by examining the many conflicting ways that historians have defined and approached history. By demonstrating how these historians have differed in both their interpretations of specific historical events and their definitions of history itself, this book conveys to students the interpretive character of history as a discipline and the way that the historian's context and subjective perspective influence his or her understanding of the past.
Lonergan and Historiography : The Epistemological Philosophy of HistoryAlthough Bernard Lonergan is known primarily for his cognitional theory and theological methodology, he long sought to formulate a modern philosophy of history free of progressive and Marxist biases. Yet he never addressed this in any single work, and his reflections on the subject are scattered in various writings. In this pioneering work, Thomas McPartland shows how Lonergan's overall philosophical position offers a fresh and comprehensive basis for considering historiography. Taking Lonergan's philosophy of historical existence into the realm of an epistemological philosophy of history, he demonstrates how the philosopher's approach builds on the actual performance of historians and, as a result, integrates the insights of historical specialists into a framework of functional complementarity. McPartland draws on all of Lonergan's philosophical writing—as well as on the vast literature of
On the Future of History : The Postmodernist Challenge and Its AftermathWhat does postmodernism mean for the future of history? Can one still write history in postmodernity? To answer questions such as these, Ernst Breisach provides the first comprehensive overview of postmodernism and its complex relationship to history and historiography. Placing postmodern theories in their intellectual and historical contexts, he shows how they are part of broad developments in Western culture.
Rethinking History, Dictatorship and War : New Approaches and InterpretationsThe contributions in this collection deal with three of the most important themes of historical studies: the way history is or ought to be written, the nature of dictatorships and the nature of wars. The primary focus is on modern Europe and two defining experiences in the first half of the twentieth century: the two world wars and totalitarian dictatorships.
New Ways of History : Developments in HistoriographyThis volume provides an overview of recent trends in historiography and the changing agenda of questions in several historical fields - chronological, thematic and regional. It further adds to the discussion of how to treat time in history. In this way the comparative perspective is highlighted and further insight is given to the different historical trends and periods under consideration.
The Paths of HistoryThis is a broad and ambitious study of the entire history of humanity which takes as its point of departure Marx's theory of social evolution. However, Professor Diakonoff's theory of world history differs from Marx's in a number of ways. Firstly he has expanded Marx's five stages of development to eight. Secondly he denies that social evolution necessarily implies progress and shows how'each progress is simultaneously a regress', and thirdly he demonstrates that the transition from one stage to another is not necessarily marked by social conflict and that sometimes this is achieved peacefully and gracefully. As the book moves through these various stages, the reader is drawn into a remarkable and thought-provoking study of the process of the history of the human race which focuses on the wide range of factors (economic, social, military-technological, and socio-pyschological) which have influenced our development from palaeolithic times to the present day.
Theorizing Historical ConsciousnessOur understanding of the past shapes our sense of the present and the future: this is historical consciousness. While academic history, public history, and the study of collective memory are thriving enterprises, there has been only sparse investigation of historical consciousness itself, in a way that relates it to the policy questions it raises in the present. With Theorizing Historical Consciousness, Peter Seixas has brought together a diverse group of international scholars to address the problem of historical consciousness from the disciplinary perspectives of history, historiography, philosophy, collective memory, psychology, and history education
Thinking Historically : Educating Students for the Twenty-first CenturyTwo simple but profound questions have preoccupied scholars since the establishment of history education over a century ago: what is historical thinking, and how do educators go about teaching it? In Thinking Historically, Stéphane Ltévesque examines these questions, focusing on what it means to think critically about the past. As students engage in a new century already characterized by global instability, uncertainty, and rivalry over claims about the past, present, and future, this study revisits enduring questions and aims to offer new and relevant answers.Drawing on a rich collection of personal, national, and international studies in history education, Ltévesque offers a coherent and innovative way of looking at how historical expertise in the domain intersects with the'pedagogy of history education
Voice and VisionIt has become commonplace these days to speak of 'unpacking' texts. Voice and Vision is a book about packing that prose in the first place. This book is for those who wish to understand the ways in which literary considerations can enhance nonfiction writing. Stephen Pyne, an experienced and skilled writer himself, explores the many ways to understand what makes good nonfiction, and explains how to achieve it. His counsel and guidance will be invaluable to experts as well as novices in the art of writing serious and scholarly nonfiction.
What Happened to History?This original study explores the development of the postmodern turn in history, brought on by the social, political and cultural changes of the 1970s and 1980s. Challenging notions of certainty and objectivity, postmodernism has questioned traditional models and methods in studying history. A timely intervention in an increasingly contentious area, this book evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of postmodern history. Beginning with a brief account of historiography as an academic discipline, with its origins in the'scientific historiography'of the nineteenth century, Willie Thompson charts the growth and development of the historical method in the twentieth century. He examines the impact of Marxist historiography, particularly in Britain and the United States, and the emergence of new approaches to history exemplified by the work of E.P. Thompson and others. In addition, Thompson assesses the impact of feminist, black and minority history.
History Education
Becoming a History Teacher : Sustaining Practices in Historical Thinking and KnowingA revolution in history education is propelling historical thinking and knowing to the forefront of history and social studies education in North America and beyond. Teachers, teacher education programs, schools, and ministries of education across Canada are all among those embracing the idea that knowing history means knowing how to think historically. Becoming a History Teacher is a collection of thoughtful essays by history teachers, historians, and teacher educators on how to prepare student teachers to think historically and to teach historical thinking
History Wars and the Classroom : Global PerspectivesThe book is entitled History Wars in the Classroom: Global Perspectives and examines how ten separate countries have experienced debates and disputes over the contested nature of the subject, for example the'Black Armband'and'Whitewash'factions in Australia who adopt opposingly celebratory or denigratory views of Australian history, especially when evaluating episodes of poor racial relations. There are also tensions between traditional/patriotic views of history teaching and reformed or 'new' history. There are issues of political control of the curriculum and parallel issues of who writes it (very topical in England at the moment over two expat 'big picture'historians who work at Harvard and Columbia
Issues in History TeachingWritten by a range of history professionals, including HMIs, this book provides excellent ideas on the teaching, learning and organization of history in primary and secondary schools.
Narrative Matters : Teaching History Through StoryIn recent years there has been a massive revival of interest internationally in what story can offer to education. This book covers a range of issues at the heart of teaching history, such as the use of talk, the pitfalls of narrative as a pedagogical tool, translating curriculum content into lessons, story telling and story making. It also questions what it means to teach, the difficulties for teachers of remaining constructively critical of policy, and their own practice, during periods of national legislation and change.
National History Standards : The Problem of the Canon and the Future of Teaching HistoryPolicy-makers and opinion leaders often confuse the pedagogical desirability of using a ‘framework'for studying history with their own efforts to reaffirm the centrality of national identity rooted in a vision of their nation's history as a way of inculcating citizenship and patriotism. These are the issues discussed in this volume
Teaching and Learning History 11-18 : Understanding the PastDrawing on cutting edge research and practice, this book draws together recent thinking in teaching and learning in history, teaching and learning in secondary education more generally and classroom-based research to provide a radical re-thinking of the practices of teaching and learning about the past at the beginning of the twenty-first century.
Understanding History TeachingHistory is one of the most ideologically disputed of school subjects. Over the past generation, the subject has experienced fundamental changes in content, pedagogy and approach. This book is the first detailed account of the way history is taught in schools to be published for 30 years. Drawing on fieldwork in comprehensive schools, and on research studies worldwide, the authors pose fundamental questions about the way teachers teach and learners learn.
What Shall We Tell the Children? : International Perspectives on School History TextbooksThe pages of this book illustrate that as instruments of socialization and sites of ideological discourse textbooks are powerful artefacts in introducing young people to a specific historical, cultural and socioeconomic order. Crucially, exploring the social construction of school textbooks and the messages they impart provides an important context from within which to critically investigate the dynamics underlying the cultural politics of education and the social movements that form it and which are formed by it.
Echoes of War : A Thousand Years of Military History in Popular CultureAmericans are often accused of not appreciating history, but this charge belies the real popular interest in the past. Historical reenactments draw thousands of spectators; popular histories fill the bestseller lists; PBS, A&E and The History Channel air a dizzying array of documentaries and historical dramas; and Hollywood war movies become blockbusters.Though historians worry that these popular representations sacrifice authenticity for broad appeal, Michael C.C. Adams argues that living history -- even if it is an incomplete depiction of the past -- plays a vital role in stimulating the historical imagination. In Echoes of War, he examines how one of the most popular fields of history is portrayed, embraced, and shaped by mainstream culture.
Military Operations, Health and TechnologyThis book presents current research in the study of military operations, health issues, and technology. Topics discussed in this compilation include population transfers and the mediation of insurgent conflicts; the emotional and mental coping skills of a submarine crew in extreme environments; telehealth technologies for the provision of long-distance clinical health care, patient and professional education and health administration; military unit pathfinding problems applying MOACO algorithms and the strategic and military operation issues for conducting the war in Afghanistan. (Imprint: Nova)
Misguided Weapons : Technological Failure and Surprise on the BattlefieldTechnological failure results when one side in a conflict does not fully grasp the potential impact of known, or even familiar, weapons in the enemy's hands. In most cases, such failure resulted from higher officials 'ignorance or their total misunderstanding of the importance and relevance of such technology and science as well as of their application to warfare. Technological failure is also the root cause of technological surprise
Of Arms and Men : A History of War, Weapons, and AggressionAs Robert L. O'Connell reveals in this vividly written history of weapons in Western culture, that first attempt at an arms control measure characterizes the complex and often paradoxical relationship between men and arms throughout the centuries. In a sweeping narrative that ranges from prehistoric times to the nuclear age, O'Connell demonstrates how social and economic conditions determine the types of weapons and the tactics used in warfare and how, in turn, innovations in weapons technology often undercut social values.
On WarThe works of German military historian and theorist Carl von Clausewitz continue to be ranked among the finest examples of the genre. His surprisingly complex conceptions of war are still studied by military strategists. In On War, Clausewitz draws on his experiences in and observations of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic wars to develop a number of key ideas that still play a role in the planning and execution of military operations today.
Soldiers and Ghosts : A History of Battle in Classical AntiquityWhat set the successful armies of Sparta, Macedon, and Rome apart from those they defeated? In this major new history of battle from the age of Homer through the decline of the Roman empire, J. E. Lendon surveys a millennium of warfare to discover how militaries change—and don't change—and how an army's greatness depends on its use of the past. Noting this was an age that witnessed few technological advances, J. E. Lendon shows us that the most successful armies were those that made the most effective use of cultural tradition
The Future of Warfare in the 21st CenturyThe ECSSR 18th Annual Conference, The Future of Warfare in the 21st Century, held at the Center on April 9–10, 2013 in Abu Dhabi, and the resultant papers contained in this volume, explore how warfare may be affected by technological, strategic and civil developments in the coming years, particularly the revolutionary use of remote and autonomous systems on the modern battlefield, the budding application of cyber-attack and defense strategies, and the future direction of intelligence operations in the 21st century. The papers in this book discuss concepts and theories of war-fighting which have evolved radically over the past twenty years; resulting in equally radical changes in military doctrine.
War : An Introduction to Theories and Research on Collective ViolenceMany students have come to the study of war and peace from a background heavily influenced by media exposure and political commitment. Some tend to see rebellion against autocratic rule mainly in terms of political ideals and the struggle for justice. The academic study of civil war, on the other hand, in recent years has focused more on the opportunity factors, even claiming that the greed of rebel leaders can play an important role in driving an insurrection. Discovering this, some students have become disillusioned, but many have taken up the challenge to show that wars in general and civil wars in particular are also fought for more than material gain. This book offers a balanced assessment of grievance and opportunity theories, and will serve as food for thought as the readers attempt to hammer out their own projects and move the field forward.
War and the World : Military Power and the Fate of Continents, 1450-2000In this brilliant history of warfare, Jeremy Black is the first to approach the entire modern era from a comprehensive global perspective. He provides a wide-ranging account of the nature, purpose, and experience of war over the past half-millennium and argues the importance of viewing the rise of European power within a wider international context. Investigating both land and sea warfare, Black examines weaponry, tactics, strategy, and resources as well as the political, social, and cultural impact of conflict. The book takes issue with established interpretations, not least those that emphasize technology, and challenges the view that European military and naval forces were dominant throughout the period.
War In The Early Modern WorldA collection of essays charting the developments in military practice and warfare across the world in the early modern and modern periods.
War in the Modern Great Power System : 1495--1975War in the Modern Great Power System provides a much-needed perspective on the major wars of the past. In this thorough and systematic study, Levy carefully defines the Great Power concept and identifies the Great Powers and their international wars since the late fifteenth century. The resulting compilation of war data is unique because of its five-century span and its focus on a well-defined set of Great Powers. Turning to a quantitative analysis of the characteristics, patterns, and trends in war,
Public History
Framing Public MemoryA collection of essays by prominent scholars from many disciplines on the construction of public memories. The study of public memory has grown rapidly across numerous disciplines in recent years, among them American studies, history, philosophy, sociology, architecture, and communications. As scholars probe acts of collective remembrance, they have shed light on the cultural processes of memory.
Inventing American HistoryAmerican public history -- in magazines and books, television documentaries, and museums -- tends to celebrate its subject at all costs, even to the point of denial and distortion. This does us a great disservice, argues William Hogeland in Inventing American History. Looking at details glossed over in three examples of public history -- the Alexander Hamilton revival, tributes to Pete Seeger and William F. Buckley, and the Constitution Center in Philadelphia -- Hogeland considers what we lose when history is written to conform to political aims.
The Archaeology of Institutional LifeInstitutions pervade social life. They express community goals and values by defining the limits of socially acceptable behavior. Institutions are often vested with the resources, authority, and power to enforce the orthodoxy of their time. But institutions are also arenas in which both orthodoxies and authority can be contested
Social History
A Short History of SocietyA Short History of Society is a concise account of the emergence of modern western society. It looks at how successive generations have understood and explained the world in which they lived, and examines significant events since the Enlightenment that have led to the development of society as we know it today.
History and the Testimony of LanguageThis book is about history and the practical power of language to reveal historical change. Christopher Ehret offers a methodological guide to applying language evidence in historical studies. He demonstrates how these methods allow us not only to recover the histories of time periods and places poorly served by written documentation, but also to enrich our understanding of well-documented regions and eras. A leading historian as well as historical linguist of Africa, Ehret provides in-depth examples from the language phyla of Africa, arguing that his comprehensive treatment can be applied by linguistically trained historians and historical linguists working with any language and in any area of the world.
Social Theories of History and Histories of Social TheoryRepresenting a range of approaches and emphases, the chapters in this volume address and illustrate linkages between social theory and history; social theory and historical analysis as mutually supportive frames of analysis, and affinities between the history of social thought and the history of modern societies. Both classical and more recent theorists feature prominently, especially Durkheim and Weber, but also such central figures in the field as Bourdieu and Luhmann.
The Measure of Civilization : How Social Development Decides the Fate of NationsIn the last thirty years, there have been fierce debates over how civilizations develop and why the West became so powerful. The Measure of Civilization presents a brand-new way of investigating these questions and provides new tools for assessing the long-term growth of societies. Using a groundbreaking numerical index of social development that compares societies in different times and places, award-winning author Ian Morris sets forth a sweeping examination of Eastern and Western development across 15,000 years since the end of the last ice age.
World System History : The Social Science of Long-Term ChangeThis extraordinary book presents a refreshing and innovative overview of the changes to the global system over the last 5000 years. Featuring renowned contributors - each specialists in their field - this is the only volume to offer so co-ordinated a study of continuity and change in the global social, economic and political system.
World History
A Marxist History of the World : From Neanderthals to NeoliberalsThis magisterial analysis of human history - from'Lucy', the first hominid, to the current Great Recession - combines the insights of earlier generations of Marxist historians with radical new ideas about the historical process. Reading history against the grain, Neil Faulkner reveals that what happened in the past was not predetermined. Choices were frequent and numerous. Different outcomes - liberation or barbarism - were often possible. Rejecting the top-down approach of conventional history, Faulkner contends that it is the mass action of ordinary people that drives great events. At the beginning of the 21st century - with economic disaster, war, climate catastrophe and deep class divisions - humans face perhaps the greatest crisis in the long history of our species. The lesson of A Marxist History of the World is that, since we created our past, we can also create a better future.
Europe and the Islamic World : A HistoryEurope and the Islamic World sheds much-needed light on the shared roots of Islamic and Western cultures and on the richness of their inextricably intertwined histories, refuting once and for all the misguided notion of a'clash of civilizations'between the Muslim world and Europe. In this landmark book, three eminent historians bring to life the complex and tumultuous relations between Genoans and Tunisians, Alexandrians and the people of Constantinople, Catalans and Maghrebis--the myriad groups and individuals whose stories reflect the common cultural, intellectual, and religious heritage of Europe and Islam
History at the End of the World? : History, Climate Change and the Possibility of Closure'This collection of essays proposes that climate change means serious peril. Our argument, however, is not about the science per se. It is about us, our deep and more recent history, and how we arrived at this calamitous impasse. With contributions from academic activists and independent researchers, History at the End of the World challenges advocates of ‘business as usual'to think again. But in its wide-ranging assessment of how we transcend the current crisis, it also proposes that the human past could be our most powerful resource in the struggle for survival. Our approaches begin from archaeology, literature, religion, psychology, sociology, philosophy of science, engineering and sustainable development, as well as ‘straight' history.'
How the West Came to Rule : The Geopolitical Origins of CapitalismMainstream historical accounts of the development of capitalism describe a process which is fundamentally European - a system that was born in the mills and factories of England or under the guillotines of the French Revolution. In this groundbreaking book, a very different story is told. How the West Came to Rule offers a unique interdisciplinary and international historical account of the origins of capitalism. It argues that contrary to the dominant wisdom, capitalism's origins should not be understood as a development confined to the geographically and culturally sealed borders of Europe, but the outcome of a wider array of global processes in which non-European societies played a decisive role.
The Terror of History : On the Uncertainties of Life in Western CivilizationThis book reflects on Western humanity's efforts to escape from history and its terrors--from the existential condition and natural disasters to the endless succession of wars and other man-made catastrophes. Drawing on historical episodes ranging from antiquity to the recent past, and combining them with literary examples and personal reflections, Teofilo Ruiz explores the embrace of religious experiences, the pursuit of worldly success and pleasures, and the quest for beauty and knowledge as three primary responses to the individual and collective nightmares of history. The result is a profound meditation on how men and women in Western society sought (and still seek) to make meaning of the world and its disturbing history
See also Archaeology, Defense Studies, Diplomacy, Economics, Education, Human Rights, International Relations, Political Science (Politics), Public Administration, Religion, and Sociology in this Subject Guide