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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: 0-394-70512-2 Publisher: Vintage Books Pub. Date: 12 March, 1964 Format: Mass Market Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $10.20 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.11 (9 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: A Historian's Craft
Comment: Marc Bloc's style of writing (or the translation) is extremely complicated. At many times, I had to re-read many paragraphs two to three times, just to get a gist of what he was trying to express.
Nonetheless, Marc Bloc displays that same complexity in the ideas he wishes to express. Although he apologizes for the lack of accuracy in some of his examples, he makes no such concessions on his views. Highly authoritative on controversial topics, like evidence, forgeries, and the perennial question of "why study history?", Marc Bloc attempts to use the subject of history as a platform to discuss other social issues i.e. economics, philosophy, abeit in an indirect manner.
Also, his chapter on Nomenclature deserves a good thorough read . It's very mind boggling and incisive. Although his final chapter on Historical Analysis has been dealt with by other historians like Carr, it does convey Bloc's passion for history - a trait which will certainly rub off on any history enthusiast.
Given its linguistic style and the subject matter, The Historian's Craft is not the book you would want to take to bed with.
Rating: 4
Summary: Master of His Craft
Comment: To Marc Blanc, the craft of history is an endeavor not to be taken lightly. It is far from a trivial indulgence of human curiosity but a serious science, in fact, "the most difficult of all the sciences." The Historian's Craft is Bloch's portrait of the paragon of history as well as a road map for striving toward that ideal.
Before buying or reading this work, the reader should be aware of three of its unusual aspects. First, by virtue of tragic circumstances, the book is in unfinished form. Bloch, a renowned scholar who was active in the French resistance, was captured by the Nazis and eventually executed, leaving only approximately two thirds of the envisaged work complete. Second, as a result of his fate, the written chapters published in this book did not undergo the polishing they certainly would have received before publication. As a result, the work is uneven and the last finished chapter in particular ("Historical Analysis") is difficult to follow in parts, ponderous in its structure and language and largely lacks the clarity and smoothness of earlier chapters. Finally, the book contains many references to, from the layman's perspective, relatively obscure contemporary and historical French academics. To the eye and ear of the amateur, these allusions disrupt the cadence of the book and diminish the power of its logic.
With those disclaimers in place, there are many fascinating and enjoyable components to the book. First and foremost, suffused throughout is Bloch's passion for the practice of history. Yet his passion is not the naïve infatuation of youth but rather a mature expression grounded in the sober responsibility and extreme difficulties inherent in the craft. For Bloch, history is to be written, "with integrity, with truth, with the utmost penetration into its hidden causes, and thus, with difficulty." As it is "the science of men in time," history therefore requires an understanding of the dizzying number of varied forces that interact with, impact and respond to the mind of man. Thus, the ideal historian is a polymath steeped in linguistics, psychology, archeology, sociology, geography, biology, economics, and other fields that collectively are the tools of understanding. Furthermore, he should have the skill to communicate this understanding with the "great delicacy of language and precise verbal shadings (that) are necessary" to convey his subject accurately. Bloch understands that this ideal is not to be found in one person but leaves the clear impression that his had been a life devoted to its pursuit.
His writings on Evidence, The Transmission of Evidence and Historical Criticism are lucid, practical field guides replete with examples from Bloch's scholarly pursuits. In discussing historical evidence, he details in interesting fashion the growing recognition of the importance of "unintentional" evidence relative to narrative sources written for posterity. His writing on the collection or transmission of historical evidence is notable for its counter-intuitive discussion of the unexpected boon to historical preservation provided by cataclysms. While acknowledging the terrible loss to posterity from many disasters, he notes that, "the peaceable continuity of social existence is much less favorable to the transmission of memory than is sometimes supposed." Calamities disrupt plans of privacy and, in extreme cases such as the eruption of Vesuvius, preserve the ancient from typical destruction at the hands of progress. Historical Criticism, which may be summarized as the effort to discern truth from falsehood through systematic, rational analysis issuing forth from a predisposition to doubt, is treated in fascinating detail. Systematic fraud, unintentional error and societal predispositions and prejudices are sources of falsehood that Bloch illustrates with the skill of a detective.
This is not a work without flaws, but its strengths carry the day for any reader with an interest in the field of history. Perhaps the best summation of this book is given voice by Bloch's own tragically ironic words, set down in his Introduction in relation to the state of his profession, "The incomplete, if it is perpetually straining to realize itself, is quite as enticing as the most perfect success."
Rating: 4
Summary: Marc Bloch
Comment: Marc Bloch was one of the great French historians. This is the summary of his life's work, the thoughts on his vocation of a master historian. True this is not a great philosophical master piece, like the works of Collingwood, but it is full of sage observations, and practical advice. The last book by a victim of the Nazi regime. You will enjoy reading it. Highly recommended.
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Title: What Is History? by Edward Hallet Carr ISBN: 039470391X Publisher: Vintage Books Pub. Date: 12 October, 1967 List Price(USD): $11.35 |
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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: That Noble Dream : The 'Objectivity Question' and the American Historical Profession by Peter Novick, Quentin Skinner, Lorraine Daston, Dorothy Ross, James Tully ISBN: 0521357454 Publisher: Cambridge University Press Pub. Date: 30 September, 1988 List Price(USD): $27.00 |
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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: Telling the Truth About History by Joyce Appleby, Lynn Hunt, Margaret Jacob ISBN: 0393312860 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: April, 1995 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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