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Title: What Is History? by Edward Hallet Carr ISBN: 0-394-70391-X Publisher: Vintage Books Pub. Date: 12 October, 1967 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $11.35 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.89 (9 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: As good as it will get
Comment: For a book on historiography, it's not gonna get any better. It really makes a big difference on how you see other historical writings and such. I don't know if this will help, but it's part of a report I did on the book:
The study of history offers new interpretations to the historian and the scholar, because it helps the historian understand his job and how to overcome problems, and it teaches the scholar to read history with a greater understanding. Just by reading Edward Carr's book, the student learns that when reading a history book, he shouldn't be concerned with just the facts in the book, but also the author and the time period in which the book was written. To fully grasp the work of the historian, he must first understand the circumstances under which the work was written. It is also beneficial to the historian himself, as Carr says, "the historian who is most conscious of his own situation is also more capable of transcending it, and more capable of appreciating the essential nature of the differences between his own society and outlook and those of other periods and other countries, than the historian who loudly protests that he is an individual and not a social phenomenon."
Carr does not delve into ways to approach history, except for simply and sporadically. He seems to feel that history should always be studied in the same way. The only "new method" he mentioned was time itself, changing peoples perspectives and expectations of history. New historians can base their studies off of the evidence and materials of the old, and in this way, history can progress. Carr says that over time, "Nothing...occurred to alter the inductive view of historical method...first collect your facts, then interpret them."
I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the book. While I wouldn't read it again, I would recommend it to any history student, because it changes the perspective on history. The book started out very strong- everything pointed to the one looming question, what is history?, but as the book progressed, Carr seemed to lose track of the point, and focus more on whether history is a science or not, rather than defining the word. The book was easy to read, and was full of examples- sometimes humorous- that made Carr's ideas understandable. Carr constantly quoted other historians, or used simple sayings, like "which came first, the chicken or the egg?" At first Carr was convincing, but as he lost track, I lost interest, and his later points did not convince me at all. Even so, the book was readable, informative, and recommendable.
Rating: 5
Summary: Postmodernism getting you down?
Comment: Carr's work has endurance. For the more simply oriented historians, who just want to tell their story and are not interested in political agendas, you will come away from this book gratified and inspired. Carr gives meaning to the study of history, and he does it in an entertaining way. There is little leftist trapping -- although I was initally put off by the fact that Karl Marx has more entries in the index than "truth." I gave him a chance, and I was not disappointed.
Perhaps the greatest test is that of the three books I had to buy to study historiography, I kept this one and sold the other two.
Rating: 4
Summary: daring but not systematic
Comment: In order to appreciate and understand Carr's work, his two interdependent and conflicting aims should be taken into account. On the one hand Carr is trying to promote articulations of philosophy of history, which are remarkably absent among the works of most historians. On the other,Carr is trying to validate his own view of history. For his first aim Carr is delibarately provocative and speaks rather loosely. For his second aim he needs to be systematic and consistent, which he obviously is not. It is not so much what Carr says but his style in saying it that disturbs the serious readers of philosophy and of history. Few would doubt that history is neither merely a diachronic compilation of objective facts, nor fiction (ch I). Yet his way of coming to this conclusion, through asserting that historical facts are products of repitition in historiography cannot be accepted without rejecting historicism. For Carr history is a dialogue "between the soicety of today and the society of yesterday(ch II)." I think this is one of the best relativist expressions of history. Nevertheless, why should individual motivations and intentions not count as the subject of history, since they will, from the relativist perspective,also be manifestations of the effect of social forces on the individual? For the student of philosophy of history, his first two chapters merit attention. The other chapters, are definitely of interest, but only to those who are at once fascinated by and fear the boldness and vivacity of Carr's ideology. Carr simplifies perspectives in opposition to his own to the extent that they appear to be ridiculous. The sympathetic reader will try to fill in the gaps in his logic and the critical reader will destroy him. Yet in the "final analysis" his work, despite its prominent shortcomings, is of immense heuristic value.
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Title: The Historian's Craft : Reflections on the Nature and Uses of History and the Techniques and Methods ofThose Who Write It. by Marc Bloch ISBN: 0394705122 Publisher: Vintage Books Pub. Date: 12 March, 1964 List Price(USD): $10.20 |
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Title: The Landscape of History: How Historians Map the Past by John Lewis Gaddis ISBN: 0195066529 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: September, 2002 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
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Title: Historiography in the Twentieth Century: From Scientific Objectivity to the Postmodern Challenge by Georg G. Iggers ISBN: 0819563064 Publisher: Wesleyan Univ Pr Pub. Date: 15 January, 1997 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
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Title: In Defense of History by Richard J. Evans ISBN: 0393319598 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: January, 2000 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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Title: A Short Guide to Writing About History (4th Edition) by Richard A. Marius, Melvin E. Page, Richard Marius ISBN: 0321093003 Publisher: Longman Pub. Date: 05 November, 2001 List Price(USD): $24.40 |
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