Historiography Books

Book SynopsisChoice Outstanding Academic Title 2023This volume brings together 25 defining texts in global history. These pieces cover approaches to the subject from antiquity to the present century and, taken together, show the development of the discipline, providing a solid historiographical, theoretical and methodological overview that will be invaluable for students. The collection gives a unique sense of how, at different times, in different cultural circumstances, students of the past have approached the problems of encompassing the world in a single narrative or theory. This is a reader with an implicit story to unfold. Felipe Fernandez-Armesto tracks how a global understanding of history originated in prophetic writings, how the Renaissance discovery of the world multiplied the opportunities for historians to think about history globally, how scientific investigations of change came to exert influence and inspire new thinking among global historians, how culture wars ensued between advoTrade ReviewIn spirit, global history is an age-old endeavour. At the same time, each manifestation is highly specific to its moment, with its own particular set of constraints and possibilities. Prof. Fernández-Armesto shows this with aplomb for the Western tradition, not just through the essays, which are judiciously chosen, but also through his introductory remarks, which are written with flare and a telling eye, highlighting the import of their subject for both students and scholars. * Gagandeep S. Sood, Associate Professor, International History Department, London School of Economics, UK *Table of ContentsIntroduction Part I: Prophecy and Providentialism 1. The Book of Daniel, Chapters 7-12 2. Paulus Orosius, Seven Books Against the Pagans, Dedication, From Book I, Section 1 and from Books II (Section 1), V (Sections 1-2) and VII (Sections 1-3) 3. M. Reeves, Joachim of Fiore and the Prophetic Future, From Chapter 1, “Joachim and the Meaning of History” 4. From Ibn Khaldun, The Muqaddimah: An Introduction to History Part II: From Providence to Progress 5. Johann Gottfried Herder, Outlines of a Philosophy of the History of Man, Book XV, Chapters 1-5 6. Immanuel Kant, Idea for a Universal History from a Cosmopolitan Point of View, On History [1784] 7. G.W.F. Hegel, Lectures on the Philosophy of World History, “The Course of the World’s History,” vol. iii, sections 60-99. 8. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Manifesto of the Communist Party [1848], Chapter 1 9. Leopold von Ranke, Universal History: The Oldest Historical Group of Nations and the Greeks [1884], Preface Part III: The Scientific Temptation 10. Herbert Spencer, “Progress: Its Law and Consequences” [1886], Chapter 1 11. Christopher Dawson, The Age of the Gods [1928], “Introduction” 12. David Christian, “World History in Context” [2003] 13. Richard Lewontin and Joseph Fraccia, “Does Culture Evolve?” [1994] 14. Felipe Fernández-Armesto, “How to be Human: A Historical Approach” [2010] 15. Daniel Lord Smail, “Neuroscience and the Dialectics of History” [2012] Part IV: Comparative and Contextual Approaches 16. Ian G. Simmons, ‘“To Civility and Man´s Use”: History, Culture, and Nature’ [1998] 17. Jared M.Diamond, “Colonization Cycles in Man and Beast” [1977] 18. Kenneth Pomeranz, “Social History and World History from Daily Life to Patterns of Change” [2007] 19. Bruce Mazlish, “Comparing Global History to World History” [1998] Part V: The Eurocentrism Controversies 20. Arnold J. Toynbee, “My View of History” [1948] 21. Samuel Huntington,. “The Clash of Civilizations” [1993] 22. J.C. van Leur, Indonesian Trade and Society: Essays in Asian Social and Economic History [1967], Chapter 1: “On Methodology and Theory” 23. W.H. McNeill, “A Defence of World History” [1982] Envoi: The New Narratives 24. David Christian, “The Return of Universal History” [2010] 25. David Northrup, “Globalization and the Great Convergence: Rethinking World History in the Long Term” [2008]

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Book SynopsisA biography of the historian and public intellectual Sir Lewis Namier from his origins in a secular Jewish family in Poland to recognition as the most important historian of his day, whose ‘revolutionary’ method was enshrined in the verb to Namierise.Trade Review'Judicious, balanced, thorough … David Hayton’s book will be accepted as the definitive biography of a fascinating man.' Adam Sisman, author of A.J.P. Taylor and Hugh Trevor-Roper‘Hayton has left hardly any relevant archive or printed source uncombed … The result is a definitive account of its subject. As histories of historians go, it definitely ranks with Haslam on E. H. Carr, Sisman on Taylor and Trevor-Roper, and Bentley on Butterfield.’ Miles Taylor, author of The Age of Asa: Lord Briggs, Public Life and History in Britain since 1945 'One of the most important books in British historiography for decades. Nobody is better placed than David Hayton to recover Namier’s unsurpassed technical mastery of historical problems. But Hayton is equally alert to Namier’s chequered life and overpowering personality, while his deft and unobtrusively witty style makes this a pleasure to read. A masterpiece.'Colin Kidd, author of The Forging of Races: Race and Scripture in the Protestant Atlantic World, 1600–2000 'An important and compelling study. The product of many years of research, this scholarly and well-written biography goes beyond a familiar English environment to expand Namier's significance as a major figure in European and Jewish historiography.' Michael Bentley, author of The Life and Thought of Herbert Butterfield: History, Science and God 'Lewis Namier (1888-1960), has long held a legendary status among historians. When I was an undergraduate, my teachers told me he had revolutionised the study of our subject. DW Hayton’s startlingly honest biography, Conservative Revolutionary: The Lives of Lewis Namier (Manchester University Press), puts him in his contexts – a Polish-Jewish immigrant to the UK, a painstakingly exact scholar, a Freudian who thought that ideas played no part in history or in the motivation of individuals, a Zionist who disliked Israel, and a thoroughly unpleasant man. Hayton shows both why his work on 18th-century politics was hailed as revolutionary on its first appearance, and why it is no longer influential today. Masterly. 'New Statesman'That is a bald summary of a life brilliantly covered by Hayton, and with a great mastery not only of obvious sources but also of an astonishing range of obscure ones. The back cover has Adam Sisman claim the book as definitive, which is wrong as no historical work can be, but it is certainly excellent. Hayton’s conclusion makes it apparent that he came to like Namier, a difficult man; but not even Namier’s most devoted pupils and friends were blind to his faults and this is an even-handed biography. It is not the sort of cosy study recently produced for Hobsbawm. Instead, this is a psychologically grittier work and one that asks tougher questions of a man who struggled to provide a consistency to his life and work.'History Today'Until now the standard version of Namier’s life was the biography by his widow, whose inclinations were mystical rather than historiographical. Hayton’s is triumphantly comprehensive, unobtrusively weaving high politics with historiography, the life of the mind (and its whimsies) with the body: Namier’s minor obsession with graphology, his years in psychoanalysis, the botched sinus operation of his adolescence, his writer’s cramp, his insomnia.' London Review of Books ‘Namier, an extraordinarily talented man, had an extraordinarily unhappy life … This book is especially good in revealing the central European and Zionist dimensions of Namier's work and knowledge, including his writings on nineteenth- and twentieth-century European history … a carefully researched biography'J. C. D. Clark, The Critic‘deeply researched… a work of mature and exact scholarship’Jim Smyth, Dublin Review of Books‘D. W. Hayton’s biography – scrupulous, humane and leavened with dry wit – does its subject justice.’Richard Viven, Literary Review'Books are often described as definitive when they are nothing of the sort. This magnificent biography truly deserves the accolade.'Lord Lexden, Conservative History -- .Table of ContentsPrologue: In search of Namier1 Avenues of history: the child and the man, 1888–19132 Personalities and powers, 1913–19173 Facing east, 1917–1920 4 In the margin of history,1920–19285 Skyscrapers, 1928–326 Europe in decay, 1932–87 In the Nazi era, 1938–478 Crossroads of power, 1947–569 Conflicts, 1956–6010 Vanished supremacies: Namier in retrospectIndex

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Book SynopsisThe third edition of Writing History provides students and teachers with a comprehensive overview of how the study of history is informed by a broader intellectual and analytical framework, exploring the emergence and development of history as a discipline and the major theoretical developments that have informed historical writing. Instead of focusing on theory, this book offers succinct explanations of key concepts that illuminate the study of history and practical writing, and demonstrates the ways they have informed practical work. This fully revised new edition comprehensively rewrites and updates original chapters but also includes new features such as:- new chapters on postcolonial, environmental and transnational history;- chapter introductions setting them within the context of historiography;- a new substantive introduction from the editors, providing a useful road-map for students;- an expanded glossary.In its new incarnation Writing History is, more than everTrade ReviewBerger, Passmore and Feldner have assembled a remarkable and essential book for our times. It is at once a tour of the discipline of history and its major currents as well as a series of meditations on its future pathways. Students and scholars alike will draw enlightenment and inspiration from it. * Jeremy Adelman, Henry Charles Lea Professor of History, Princeton University, USA *A valuable resource for students seeking a solid historical framework for their own historical inquiries, the updated edition features vital trends in historiography, from animal history and cultural history to the social biographies of material culture objects. Integrating the history of the discipline into assessments of its diverse practices, the authors succeed in making both methodology and theory accessible. * Susan A. Crane, Associate Professor of History, University of Arizona, USA *Writing History: Theory and Practice takes a broad view, attempting to say something about most areas of historiography. It shows the imaginative ways in which different historians use various theoretical tools. * John H. Arnold, Professor of Medieval History, University of Cambridge, UK *Writing History: Theory and Practice was already one of the best collections of essays on historical writing. Now the third edition expands its reach while incorporating the most recent developments. Authored by a seasoned team of experts, this volume leaves few stones unturned as it considers the intellectual roots of the discipline, the engagement of historians with other fields, and the state of contemporary practice. Each of the nineteen chapters is a brilliant standalone contribution reflecting on key aspects of historical scholarship, but they also fit together remarkably well to provide a comprehensive account of Western historiography and the major turns of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The result is an accessible, indispensable survey of history’s complex and fascinating theoretical terrain. * J. Laurence Hare, Associate Professor of History, University of Arkansas, USA *An excellent book, now updated, which is essential for introducing advanced Master’s students to the theory and history of historical research, in an accessible format. * Ian Miller, Ulster University, UK *Table of ContentsNotes on Contributors Preface Introduction - Stefan Berger (Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Germany), Heiko Feldner (Cardiff University, UK) and Kevin Passmore (Cardiff University, UK) Part One 1 The New Scientificity in Historical Writing around 1800 - Heiko Feldner (Cardiff University, UK) 2 The Rankean Tradition in British Historiography, 1840-1950 - John Warren (Birmingham City University, UK) 3 The Professionalization and Institutionalization of History - Peter Lambert (Aberyswyth University, UK) Part Two 4 Marxist Historiography - Geoff Eley (University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA) 5 History and the Social Sciences - John Harvey (St Cloud State University, USA) 6 The Annales - Matthias Middell (University of Leipzig, Germany) 7 Cultural History - Kevin Passmore (Cardiff University, UK) 8 Psychoanalysis and History - Garthine Walker (Cardiff University, UK) and Tracey Loughran (Cardiff University, UK) 9 Anthropological Approaches, Jakob Tanner (University of Zurich, Switzerland) 10 Transnational History - Stefan Berger (Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Germany) Part Three 11 Political History - Jon Lawrence (University of Cambridge, UK) 12 Social History - Thomas Welskopp (Bielefeld University, Germany) 13 Economic History - Pat Hudson (Cardiff University, UK) 14 Intellectual History/History of Ideas - Beverley Southgate (University of Hertfordshire, UK) 15 From Women's History to Gender History - Laura Lee Downs (École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, France) 16 Race, Ethnicity and History - David Doddingon (Cardiff University, UK) 17 Postcolonial and Subaltern History - TBC 19 Literature and History - TBC 19 Environmental History - Lloyd Price (Cardiff University, UK) 20 Digital History - TBC 21. Material History, Giorgio Riello and Anne Gerritsen (University of Warwick, UK) Conclusion - Stefan Berger (Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Germany), Heiko Feldner (Cardiff University, UK) and Kevin Passmore (Cardiff University, UK) Glossary Index

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Book SynopsisThis volume offers a stimulating new perspective on the history of historical studies. Through the prism of ‘scholarly personae’, it explores why historians care about attitudes or dispositions that they consider necessary for studying the past, yet often disagree about what virtues, skills, or competencies are most important. More specifically, the volume explains why models of virtue known as ‘personae’ have always been contested, yet also can prove remarkably stable, especially with regard to their race, class, and gender assumptions. Covering historical studies across Europe, North America, Africa, and East Asia, How to be a historian will appeal not only to historians of historiography, but to all historians who occasionally wonder: What kind of a historian do I want to be?Trade Review'Historians’ identities form the subject matter of this geographically wide-ranging, well-researched and theoretically framed collection of essays.'R. C. Richardson, University of Winchester, Times Higher Education, July 2019 -- .Table of ContentsNotes on contributorsIntroduction. Scholarly personae: what they are and why theymatter – Herman Paul1 The contested persona of the historian: on the origins of apermanent conflict – Ian Hunter2 Ranke vs Schlosser: pairs of personae in nineteenth-centuryGerman historiography – Herman Paul3 Fixing genius: the Romantic man of letters in the universityera – Travis E. Ross4 Generational continuities and composite personae: Frenchhistoriography from the 1870s to the 1950s – Camille Creyghton5 Pasha and his historic harem: Edward A. Freeman, EdithThompson and the gendered personae of late-Victorianhistorians – Elise Garritzen6 Interpretative and investigative: the emergence andcharacteristics of modern scholarly personae in China,1900–30 – Q. Edward Wang7 Coalescence and conflict: historians and their personae in thePortuguese New State – António da Silva Rêgo8 The emergence of the English Marxist historian’s scholarlypersona: the English Revolution debate of 1940–41 – SinaTalachian9 Of communism, compromise and Central Europe: the scholarlypersona under authoritarianism – Monika Baár10 What is an African historian? Negotiating scholarly personae inUNESCO’s General History of Africa – Larissa Schulte Nordholt11 The finitude of personae: Bryce Lyon, François Louis Ganshofand the biography of Pirenne – Henning TrüperIndex

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Book Synopsis''Not only our most distinguished historian but also one of the most valuable contributors to historical theory'' SpectatorIn answering the question, ''what is history?'', E. H. Carr''s acclaimed and influential bestseller shows that the facts of history are simply those which the historian selects for scrutiny. His fluent and hugely wide-ranging account of the nature of history and the role of the historian argues that all history is to some degree subjective, written by individuals who are above all people of their own time. ''Lively and controversial, full of wit and humour, E. H. Carr''s What Is History? played a central role in the historiographical revolution in the 1960s'' Richard J. EvansWith an introduction by Richard J. Evans, author of the Third Reich trilogy.

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Book SynopsisThese essays from the 1970s mark the inception of the distinctive project that Jacques Rancière has pursued across forty years, with four interwoven themes: the study of working-class identity, of its philosophical interpretation, of "heretical" knowledge and of the relationship between work and leisure.Trade ReviewOne of our most stimulating thinkers. * Paris Match *"The essays in Staging the People provide both empirical-historical instantiations and the intellectual road map to the later explicit theoretical formulation in Disagreement for which he is more renowned in the anglophone world. What is evident in this collection of articles is that his more recent political theory must be understood as coming intentionally out of the earlier post '68 empirical and historical works undertaken in an attempt to return 'speech' to the mere 'voice' of the oppressed, exploited, and marginalised, in whose name the intellectuals of the left have repeatedly spoken, with disastrous consequences" -- Capital & Class

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Book Synopsis'A groundbreaking and important book that will surely reframe our understanding of the Great War' David Lammy 'A genuinely groundbreaking piece of research' BBC History 'Meticulously researched and beautifully written' Military History Monthly In a sweeping narrative, David Olusoga describes how Europe's Great War became the World's War – a multi-racial, multi-national struggle, fought in Africa and Asia as well as in Europe, which pulled in men and resources from across the globe. Throughout, he exposes the complex, shocking paraphernalia of the era's racial obsessions, which dictated which men would serve, how they would serve, and to what degree they would suffer. As vivid and moving as it is revelatory and authoritative, The World's War explores the experiences and sacrifices of four million non-European, non-white people whose stories have remained too long in the shadows.Trade ReviewA groundbreaking and important book that will surely reframe our understanding of the Great War -- David LammyIn a remarkable and eye-opening book Olusoga has restored the conflict's global perspectives... The magnificent, eloquently written The World's War is a genuinely groundbreaking piece of research' * BBC History Magazine *Meticulously researched and beautifully written * Military History Monthly *The wartime experience of African, Chinese and Indian participants, for too long neglected, is detailed here * Good Book Guide *

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Book SynopsisA delightful compendium of the kind of facts you immediately want to share with anyone you encounter' New York TimesAn ebullient, irrepressible spirit invests this book. It is erudite and sprightly'Sunday TimesFrom the creation of the first encyclopedia to Wikipedia, from ancient museums to modern kindergarten classeshere is award-winning writer Simon Winchester's brilliant and all-encompassing look at how humans acquire, retain, and pass on information and data, and how technology continues to change our lives and our minds.With the advent of the internet, any topic we want to know about is instantly available with the touch of a smartphone button. With so much knowledge at our fingertips, what is there left for our brains to do? At a time when we seem to be stripping all value from the idea of knowing things no need for maths, no need for map reading, no need for memorisation are we risking our ability to think? As we empty our minds, will we one day be incapable of thoughtfulness?Addressing these questions, Simon Winchester explores how humans have attained, stored and disseminated knowledge. Examining such disciplines as education, journalism, encyclopedia creation, museum curation, photography and broadcasting, he looks at a whole range of knowledge diffusion from the cuneiform writings of Babylon to the machine-made genius of artificial intelligence, by way of Gutenberg, Google and Wikipedia to the huge Victorian assemblage of the Mundaneum, the collection of everything ever known, currently stored in a damp basement in northern Belgium.Studded with strange and fascinating details, Knowing What We Know is a deep dive into learning and the human mind. Throughout this fascinating tour, Winchester forces us to ponder what rational humans are becoming. What good is all this knowledge if it leads to lack of thought? What is information without wisdom? Does René Descartes' Cogito, ergo sum'''I think, therefore I am', the foundation for human knowledge widely accepted since the Enlightenmentstill hold?And what will the world be like if no one in it is wise?

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Book SynopsisShould historians make value judgements about the past? Many historians think not, but Donald Bloxham contends that it is legitimate, often unavoidable, and frequently important. History and Morality illuminates how far tacit moral judgements infuse works of history, and how strange those histories would look if the judgements were removed.Trade ReviewBloxham's book is a call for nuance and self-awareness, arguing that moral judgement is not only important, but is actually inescapable. What matters is how we deploy it - and that we are conscious of doing so. * Jonathan Waterlow, H/Sz/Kult *It is all too rare that a scholarly book - the product of decades of research and careful thought - emerges at precisely the moment when it is most needed ... Masterfully spanning multiple academic disciplines, Bloxham takes us back to the very foundations of Western thinking, charting the development of our conceptions of core values like 'truth', 'justice', 'responsibility', and 'guilt' ... History and Morality will be immensely useful not only for a generation of historians wary of making value judgements about the past, but also for a new generation who, in their drive to bring morality back into the picture, are sometimes too hasty to appreciate the importance of context and the pitfalls of anachronism. * Jonathan Waterlow, H-Soz-Kult *Bloxham['s] digressions and byways are often as rich as the main thread of the argument...History and Morality ought to achieve wide readership. * Professor Daniel Woolf, Queen's University, Reviews in History *

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Book SynopsisThe extent and irreversibility of US decline is becoming ever more obvious as America loses war after war and as one industry after another loses its technological edge. Lachmann explains why the United States will not be able to sustain its global dominance. He contrasts America’s relatively brief period of hegemony with the Netherlands’ similarly short primacy and Britain’s far longer era of leadership.Decline in all those cases was not inevitable and did not respond to global capitalist cycles. Rather, decline is the product of elites’ success in grabbing control of resources and governmental powers. Not only are ordinary people harmed, but also capitalists become increasingly unable to coordinate their interests and adopt policies and make investments necessary to counter economic and geopolitical competitors elsewhere in the world.Conflicts among elites and challenges by non-elites determine the timing and mould the contours of decline. Lach

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Book Synopsis The result of extensive collaboration among leading scholars from across Europe, Conceptual History in the European Space represents a landmark intervention in the historiography of concepts. It brings together ambitious thematic studies that combine the pioneering methods of historian Reinhart Koselleck with contemporary insights and debates, each one illuminating a key feature of the European conceptual landscape. With clarifying overviews of such contested theoretical terrain as translatability, spatiality, and center-periphery dynamics, it also provides indispensable contextualization for an era of widespread disenchantment with and misunderstanding of the European project.Trade Review “It seems, judging by the arguments, strategies, and agenda presented in this book, that we will see a most welcome new wave of theoretical debate within and about conceptual history, which will continue to bring invaluable debates and previously unthematized phenomena into our attention.” • Contributions to the History of Concepts “This volume should be celebrated as a precious space for innovation, at a time when new methodological perspectives tend to be placed under intense scrutiny by mainstream historical scholarship. It can therefore be recommended to all readers interested in current trends and developments within historical methodology.” • J@rgonia “Taken together, these essays represent a landmark in conceptual history's theoretical and methodological development. They are a testament to its practitioners' creative and fruitful engagement with methods and approaches forged beyond the field of intellectual history. By adding layers of depth to our understanding of both concepts and the semantic fields in which they have operated, their authors go some way towards establishing a post-Koselleckian research agenda that can allow conceptual history to flourish as it expands its own horizons of possibility.” • SehepunkteTable of Contents List of Figures Introduction: Conceptual History: Challenges, Conundrums, Complexities Willibald Steinmetz and Michael Freeden Chapter 1. Europe at Different Speeds: Asynchronicities and Multiple Times in European Conceptual History Helge Jordheim Chapter 2. Multiple Transformations: Temporal Frameworks for a European Conceptual History Willibald Steinmetz Chapter 3. Concepts and Debates: Rhetorical Perspectives on Conceptual Change Kari Palonen Chapter 4. Conceptual History, Ideology and Language Michael Freeden Chapter 5. Transnational Conceptual History, Methodological Nationalism and Europe Jani Marjanen Chapter 6. Conceptual History: The Comparative Dimension Jörn Leonhard Chapter 7. Concepts, Contests and Contexts: Conceptual History and the Problem of Translatability László Kontler Chapter 8. Conceptualizing Spaces within Europe: The Case of Meso-Regions Diana Mishkova and Balázs Trencsényi Chapter 9. Conceptualizing Modernity in Multi- and Intercultural Spaces: The Case of Central and Eastern Europe Victor Neumann Chapter 10. Concepts in a Nordic Periphery Henrik Stenius Conclusions: Setting the Agenda for a European Conceptual History Javier Fernández-Sebastián Index

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Book SynopsisBritain has scarcely begun to come to terms with its recent upheavals, from the crisis over Brexit to the collapse of Labour's 'red wall'. What can explain such momentous shifts?In this essential work, Tom Hazeldine excavates the history of a divided country: North and South, industry versus finance, Whitehall and the left-behind. Only by fully registering these deep-seated tensions, he argues, can we make sense of the present moment. Hazeldine tracks the North-South divide over the longue durée, from the formation of an English state rooted in London and the south-east; the Industrial Revolution and the rise of provincial trade unions and the Labour party; the dashed hopes for regional economic renewal in the post-war years; the sharply contrasting fates of northern manufacturing and the City of London under Thatcher and New Labour; to the continuing repercussions of financial crisis and austerity. The Northern Question is set to transform our understanding of the politics of Westminster - its purpose, according to Hazeldine, to stand English history on its head.Trade ReviewA lively, provocative and richly researched book. Tom Hazeldine shows that far from being marginal to British politics and culture, northern England has played a pivotal role in British history - and must be given serious consideration by the politicians of the future. Well-written and absorbing. -- Selina Todd, author of Tastes of Honey and The PeopleThe definitive account of the historical importance of the North-South Divide. A masterly history of the shifting social forces shaped by this enduring fault-line. -- Geoffrey Ingham, author of The Nature of Money and Capitalism Divided?The disparity between the North of England and the South East is a rich and tangled history. Hazeldine's account is persuasive, and his long view is valuable. With real acuity, he highlights key differences in people's ideas of political possibility. -- John Harris * Guardian *The first serious study of the social and historical fissure to appear in more than 30 years. * Big Issue *An expansive account of the north-south divide -- Lynsey Hanley * Financial Times *Shunning simplifications and panegyrics, Hazeldine's book is particularly strong on the postwar period, during which both Labour and Tory governments wrestled with the northern question and failed to provide an answer -- ProspectDeserve[s] a place on the bookshelves of any historian concerned with England. * New Welsh Review *Brilliant ... [a] gripping, important, infuriating history -- Review31 * http://review31.co.uk/essay/view/90/england's-house-divided *A confident, synoptic book, taking on a thousand years of England's North/South divide -- Owen Hatherley * Tribune *Compelling, rigorous and ambitious * Jacobin *Hazeldine painstakingly recounts how successive twentieth-century governments sacrificed the North on the altar of sterling and the South East. * Times Literary Supplement *A historical travelogue not for the politically faint-hearted. -- Mark Perryman * Philosophy Football *

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Book SynopsisVery Short Introductions: Brilliant, Sharp, Inspiring Emotions are complex mental states that resist reduction. They are visceral reactions but also beliefs about the world. They are spontaneous outbursts but also culturally learned performances. They are intimate and private and yet gain their substance and significance only from interpersonal and social frameworks. And just as our emotions in any given moment display this complex structure, so their history is plural rather than singular. The history of emotions is where the history of ideas meets the history of the body, and where the history of subjectivity meets social and cultural history.In this Very Short Introduction, Thomas Dixon traces the historical ancestries of feelings ranging from sorrow, melancholy, rage, and terror to cheerfulness, enthusiasm, sympathy, and love. The picture that emerges is a complex one, showing how the states we group together today as the emotions are the product of long and varied historTable of ContentsPreface Acknowledgements List of illustrations 1: The pulse of the past 2: A map of woe 3: From passions to emojis 4: Terror and the pursuit of happiness 5: All the rages 6: Looking for love References and further reading Index

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Book SynopsisA magisterial, one-volume history of political thought from Herodotus to the present, Ancient Athens to modern democracy - from author and professor Alan RyanThis is a book about the answers that historians, philosophers, theologians, practising politicians and would-be revolutionaries have given to one question: how should human beings best govern themselves? Almost every modern government claims to be democratic; but is democracy really the best way of organising our political life? Can we manage our own affairs at all? Should we even try? In the west, do we actually live in democracies? In this extraordinary book Alan Ryan engages with the great thinkers of the past to show us how vividly their ideas speak to us in today''s uncertain world.ALAN RYAN was born in London in 1940 and taught for many years at Oxford, where he was a Fellow of New College and Reader in Politics. He was Professor of Politics at Princeton from 1988 to 1996, when he reTrade Review[A] magnificent piece of work, clear (even when the ideas he's exploring are obscure) and engaging (even when the theory is forbidding) ... It's a remarkable experience -- Jeremy Waldron * New York Review of Books *A brave and clever book ... crammed with smart observations and wise advice -- John Keane * Financial Times *Concise, lucid ... despite covering huge intellectual terrain, On Politics is a delight both when it explores detail and also when it draws conclusions of a broader perspective -- Justin Champion * BBC History Magazine *

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Book SynopsisBritain has scarcely begun to come to terms with its recent upheavals, from the crisis over Brexit to the collapse of Labour's 'red wall'. What can explain such momentous shifts?In this essential work, Tom Hazeldine excavates the history of a divided country: North and South, industry versus finance, Whitehall and the left-behind. Only by fully registering these deep-seated tensions, he argues, can we make sense of the present moment.Hazeldine tracks the North-South divide over the longue durée, from the formation of an English state rooted in London and the south-east; the Industrial Revolution and the rise of provincial trade unions and the Labour party; the dashed hopes for regional economic renewal in the post-war years; the sharply contrasting fates of northern manufacturing and the City of London under Thatcher and New Labour; to the continuing repercussions of financial crisis and austerity.The Northern Question is set to transform our understanding of the politics of Westminster - its purpose, according to Hazeldine, to stand English history on its head.Trade ReviewA lively, provocative and richly researched book. Tom Hazeldine shows that far from being marginal to British politics and culture, northern England has played a pivotal role in British history - and must be given serious consideration by the politicians of the future. Well-written and absorbing. -- Selina Todd, author of Tastes of Honey and The PeopleThe definitive account of the historical importance of the North-South Divide. A masterly history of the shifting social forces shaped by this enduring fault-line. -- Geoffrey Ingham, author of The Nature of Money and Capitalism Divided?The disparity between the North of England and the South East is a rich and tangled history. Hazeldine's account is persuasive, and his long view is valuable. With real acuity, he highlights key differences in people's ideas of political possibility. -- John Harris * Guardian *The first serious study of the social and historical fissure to appear in more than 30 years. * Big Issue *An expansive account of the north-south divide -- Lynsey Hanley * Financial Times *Traces London's parasitic rise to prominence on the back of industry and the provincial poor, which it briskly cast off once they became unprofitable * New Welsh Review *Hazeldine convincingly asserts a northern reality. His point is that Brexit, and the collapse of Labour's Red Wall, are just the latest consequences of a divide written into England's political and economic geography. -- Rory Scothorne * London Review of Books *

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Book SynopsisThis is the first full-length study of the material and visual culture of the British labour movement in almost half a century. It draws together the fruits of recent research into a comprehensive material and visual analysis of the nineteenth-century labour movement’s development. It analyses the meaning of ‘labour things’, the role they played in the lives of working people and the ways they have influenced the writing of labour history. Over ninety beautifully illustrated, expertly contextualised objects are used to narrate the history of British labour in its most crucial phase of development. Chapters on curation and preservation, a directory of museums where labour things may be seen, and a full bibliography complete the treatment of this important and rapidly developing field, making the book not just essential academic reading but a handbook for anyone who wishes to explore this vital part of our shared culture.Table of ContentsAcknowledgements Foreword by Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester Preface List of images 1 Understanding labour things 2 Images and objects 3 Preservation, collections, curation and conservation 4 Directory of places that have nineteenth- century labour and working- class objects Notes Select bibliography

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Book SynopsisThis book reinterprets the history of nineteenth and twentieth-century revolutions by composing a constellation of "dialectical images": Marx’s "locomotives of history," Alexandra Kollontai’s sexually liberated bodies, Lenin’s mummified body, Auguste Blanqui’s barricades and red flags, the Paris Commune’s demolition of the Vendome Column, among several others. It connects theories with the existential trajectories of the thinkers who elaborated them, by sketching the diverse profiles of revolutionary intellectuals—from Marx and Bakunin to Luxemburg and the Bolsheviks, from Mao and Ho Chi Minh to José Carlos Mariátegui, C.L.R. James, and other rebellious spirits from the South—as outcasts and pariahs. And finally, it analyzes the entanglement between revolution and communism that so deeply shaped the history of the twentieth century. This book thus merges ideas and representations by devoting an equal importance to theoretical and iconographic sources, offering for our troubled present a new intellectual history of the revolutionary past.

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Book Synopsis'Should be read by anyone who cares about the past and the way we think and write about it' Independent on Sunday At a time when fact and historical truth are under unprecedented assault, historian Richard Evans shows us why history is necessary. Taking us into the historians' workshop to show us just how good history gets written, he demolishes the wilder claims of postmodern historians, who deny the possibility of any realistic grasp of the subject. In one of the most important lessons for today he explains the deadly political dangers of losing a historical perspective on the way we live our lives. With wit, wisdom and incisive insight, this is a book to inspire faith in the practice of historians and the worth of learning from the past. In Defence of History is the definitive argument for the craft of history and the vital worth of historians to civilization. 'A subtle, engaged, brilliantly barbed and often amusing case for historical truth...' Sunday Times 'Brilliantly readable' Antonia Fraser 'Arguably the most talented social historian of his generation' Niall Ferguson 'An excellent primer... A model of lucid and intelligent historiographical analysis' GuardianTrade ReviewA magisterial polemic * Independent *Arguably the most talented social historian of his generation -- Niall FergusonAn excellent primer on central issues of historical practice ... exemplary in his handling of sensitive episodes...a model of lucid and intelligent historiographical analysis * Guardian *A subtle, engaged, brilliantly barbed and often amusing case for historical truth * Sunday Times *Brilliantly readable -- Antonia FraserThis is a wise and sensible book, which should be read by anyone who cares about the past and the way we think and write about it * Independent on Sunday *Richard Evans offers a spirited and elegant defence of the discipline...while demonstrating with wit and acumen that historians have never been quite so credulous as is sometimes suggested * Times *

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Book SynopsisWhy aren't ordinary Russians more outraged by Putin's invasion of Ukraine? Inside the Kremlin's own historical propaganda narratives, Russia's invasion of Ukraine makes complete sense. From its World War II cult to anti-Western conspiracy theories, the Kremlin has long used myth and memory to legitimize repression at home and imperialism abroad, its patriotic history resonating with and persuading large swathes of the Russian population. In Memory Makers, Russia analyst Jade McGlynn takes us into the depths of Russian historical propaganda, revealing the chilling web of nationwide narratives and practices perforating everyday life, from after-school patriotic history clubs to tower block World War II murals. The use of history to manifest a particular Russian identity has had grotesque, even gruesome, consequences, but it belongs to a global political pattern where one's view of history is the ultimate marker of political loyalty, patriotism and national belonging. Memory MTrade ReviewWith authority and skill … McGlynn gives what now ranks as the most reliable, up-to-date account of the use and misuse of history and memory in post-Soviet Russia. -- Tony Barber * Financial Times *McGlynn presents a powerful and disturbing case that the invasion had a convincing historical logic to it, for Vladimir Putin and for Russians more generally. . . . As if to prove McGlynn’s point, historically based justifications for Russian policy and alleged plots by the West form terrifyingly explicit parts of Russia’s most recent National Security Strategy. Her insightful and creative analysis suggests that we are in for a long conflict not just over the fate of Ukraine, but also over how differing memories of the past will continue to shape the future. * Washington Post *McGlynn’s informative study of Russia’s “memory wars” shows just how easily performance, media narratives and cultural priming can slip into real violence. -- Bradley A. Gorski * Times Literary Supplement *Memory Makers makes for fascinating reading … [It] should be required reading for anyone wishing to engage in Russian politics, scholars, journalists, policy-makers alike. -- Usman Butt * Middle East Monitor *Pithy and tightly argued. -- Christopher Silvester * The Critic *Scholarly, revelatory and deeply unsettling … Dr McGlynn’s brilliant, remorseless study inculpates almost the entire Russian nation. -- Allan Mallinson * Country Life *History is back - armed with artillery and with a commitment to genocide. Jade McGlynn’s highly timely study shows how Putin weaponises the past to destroy the future * Peter Pomerantsev, Author of 'This is Not Propaganda' *As Vladimir Putin presents his imperial adventure in Ukraine as a twenty-first century re-run of the Great Patriotic War against the Nazis, it has never been more crucial to understand the degree to which his regime seeks to legitimise itself by the rewriting of history, and Jade McGlynn provides a deeply-argued and nuanced analysis of this pernicious process. * Mark Galeotti, Author of 'A Short History of Russia' *Jade McGlynn explains why Russians back the senseless war on Ukraine - because of the state's abuse of history as a tool to legitimate Russia's return to empire. * Keir Giles, Author of 'Russia’s War on Everybody' *McGlynn’s fascinating study shows how Russian memory politics does much more than evoke memories of World War Two. Its particular propaganda form is to replay and conflate the past and the present. Events in Ukraine in 2014 are not just said to echo those of the 1940s, footage and commentary are literately spliced together; Russia’s intervention in Syria is depicted as the Cold War that wasn’t, with Moscow victorious. * Andrew Wilson, University College London, author of 'Ukraine Crisis: What it Means for the West' *McGlynn delivers a timely, well-researched account of how memory politics are playing out in Russia today, where history also functions as ideology. This book is excellent for those interested in discovering how Russians understand their recent history, and why they have come to view it as they do. * Todd H. Nelson, Cleveland State University, Author of 'Bringing Stalin Back In: Memory Politics and the Creation of a Useable Past in Putin’s Russia' *Painstakingly dissects the genesis, defining features and aims of the Kremlin’s manyfold (ab)uses of history in the last decade...Jade McGlynn’s book is much-needed reading for scholars who want to dig deeper into the discourse underpinning Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine and the political use of history in today’s world more generally. Through thorough and painstaking analysis, the author engages with this narrative very seriously, dissecting its key tenets, examining where it comes from – and, sadly, where it is leading Russia and its people. * The International Spectator *Table of ContentsAcknowledgements Note on Transliteration, Translation and Citation Style List of Abbreviations 1. Taking Back Control of History 2. The Kremlin’s Memory Policies 3. Past as Present: The Historical Framing of Ukraine, Sanctions and Syria 4. Amplifying the Call to History 5. Living Forms of Patriotism 6. Attaining Cultural Consciousness 7. The Endlessness of History References Index

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Book SynopsisEssential reading for anyone interested in the African continent and the diversity of human history, this Very Short Introduction looks at Africa''s past and reflects on the changing ways it has been imagined and represented. Key themes in current thinking about Africa''s history are illustrated with a range of fascinating historical examples, drawn from over 5 millennia across this vast continent.ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.Trade ReviewA very well informed and sharply stated historiography... should be in every historiography student's kitbag. A tour de force... it made me think a great deal. * Terence Ranger, The Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies *You will finish this book better informed, with a better understanding of Africa and a clearer idea of the questions. * Robert Giddings, Tribune *This small book is a smart and stimulating essay exploring issues of history, sources and methods, Africa in the world, colonialism and postcolonialism, and the past in the present as a means of introducing students and others to academic thinking about African history. * Tom Spear, Journal of African History *Table of Contents1. The idea of Africa ; 2. Africans: diversity and unity ; 3. Africa's past: historical sources ; 4. Africa in the world ; 5. Colonialism in Africa ; 6. Imagining the future, rebuilding the past ; 7. Memory and forgetting, past and present

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Book SynopsisThrough the lens of the Balkan nations, this volume makes a valuable and significant contribution to the fields of European and Southeast European studies by reconsidering the East/West dichotomyâboth in terms of the OrientâOccident divide and the EasternâWestern Europe binary.Balkan Perspectives focuses on concepts of Europe as articulated in the Balkans from the nineteenth century to the presentâan area that remains largely underexplored, despite extensive research on national identity and the construction of the Other. The authors address this scholarly gap through meticulous bibliographic research, drawing on both published and unpublished sources in Balkan languages. A key strength of the collection is its inclusion of contributors from the Balkans as well as from wider European and American academic contexts, enabling a nuanced and comprehensive examination of the subject through internal and external perspectives. The authors argue that, in asserting their cultural identification with Europe, Balkan nations have developed concepts of Europe that resonate with Occidental discourses and offer a counter-narrative to dominant Western conceptualizations of the Balkans.Broadening access to these ideas, this bookâs approach allows scholars, students, and general readers to deepen their understanding of the Balkan region and its perspectives on identity and otherness.

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Book SynopsisWe justify our actions in the present through our understanding of the past. But we live in a time when politicians lie brazenly about historical facts and meddle with the content of history books, while media differ wildly in their reporting of the same event. Frequently, new discoveries force us to re-evaluate everything we thought we knew about the past. So how can any certainty about history be established, and why does it matter? Lynn Hunt shows why the search for truth about the past, as a continual process of discovery, is vital for our societies. History has an essential role to play in ensuring honest presentation of evidence. In this way, it can foster humility about our present-day concerns, a critical attitude toward chauvinism, and an openness to other peoples and cultures. History, Hunt argues, is our best defense against tyranny. Introducing Polity's Why It Matters series; in these short and lively books, world-leading thinkers make the case for the importance of their subjects and aim to inspire a new generation of students.Trade Review"A smart, pithy, and frankly essential statement of the origins, aims, and methods of historical study. E.H. Carr's What is History—for the twenty-first century."—Jill Lepore, Harvard University and author of These Truths: A History of the United States "What is history now, why does it matter now, who are the people writing it, and who are they writing for? In this bracing and timely book, Lynn Hunt not only shows why these questions matter, but also answers them brilliantly and provocatively."—Sir David Cannadine, President of the British Academy "Confronted by the thickening miasma of lies seeping from the White House and Fox News, what's a historian to do? In fact, given the present circumstances, does it matter that we do anything at all? According to Lynn Hunt, it does. As the Distinguished Research Professor at UCLA, Hunt has, over a long and brilliant career, earned the right to make that claim."—Los Angeles Review of Books "A timely reconsideration of the value of History... A brief and lively call to arms"—Amy Murrell Taylor, Times Literary SupplementTable of Contents1. Now More Than Ever 2. Truth in History 3. History's Politics 4. History's Future Further Reading Index

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Book SynopsisWhat is history and how should it be written? This important new anthology, translated and edited by Professor John Marincola, contains all the seminal texts that relate to the writing of history in the ancient world.The study of history was invented in the classical world. Treading uncharted waters, writers such as Plutarch and Lucian grappled with big questions such as how history should be written, how it differs from poetry and oratory, and what its purpose really is. This book includes complete essays by Dionysius, Plutarch and Lucian, as well as shorter pieces by Pliny the Younger, Cicero and others, and will be an essential resource for anyone studying history and the ancient world.Runner-up in the 13th Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize for a Translation of a Scholarly Study of Literature.an excellent tool for the study of ancient historiography at all levels, and it is bound to become a standard point of reference in the future Bryn Mawr Classical ReviewTrade Reviewan excellent tool for the study of ancient historiography at all levels, and it is bound to become a standard point of reference in the future -- Lisa Irene Hau * Bryn Mawr Classical Review *

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Book SynopsisStarting with the most meagre resources, Philip made his kingdom the greatest power in EuropeThe Greek historian Diodorus of Sicily is one of our most valuable sources from ancient times. His history, in forty volumes, was intended to range from mythological times to 60 BCE, and fifteen of The Library''s forty books survive. This new translation by Robin Waterfield of books 16-20 covers a vital period in European history. Book 16 is devoted to Philip, and without it the career of this great king would be far more obscure to us. Book 17 is the earliest surviving account by over a hundred years of the world-changing eastern conquests of Alexander the Great, Philip''s son. Books 18-20 constitute virtually our sole source of information on the twenty turbulent years following Alexander''s death and on the violent path followed by Agathocles of Syracuse. There are fascinating snippets of history from elsewhere too - from Republican Rome, the Cimmerian Bosporus, and elsewhere.Despite his obvTable of ContentsIntroduction Select Bibliography Maps Synopsis of Books 16-20 The Library Book 16 Book 17 Book 18 Book 19 Book 20 Explanatory Notes Textual Notes Glossary Appendix 1: Diodorus' Sources for Books 16-20 Appendix 2: Roman Consuls of Books 16-20 Index of Proper Names

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Book SynopsisHow does excavation enable the archaeologist to reconstruct the past? Victor Ambrus, who has been the Channel 4 Time Team artist since the programme''s inception in 1994, has selected some of the key excavations from the many series to show how it has been possible to recreate snapshots of the past.

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Book SynopsisThe Norman Conquest in 1066 was the last time England was successfully invaded, and was one of the most profound turning points in English history, cataclysmically transforming a disparate collection of small nations into a European state. But what actually happened? How was the invasion viewed by those who witnessed it? And how has its legacy been seen by generations since? This fascinating Very Short Introduction reveals how dramatically English life was changed, from its language to its law, and focuses on the differing ways the conquest has been viewed by historians and in folklore ever since. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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Book SynopsisExploring the breadth and complexities of history as a field of study, History in Practice demystifies what historians actually do and the tasks they take on. This study, written by one of the most acute practitioners in the field, examines not only the academic discipline but also engages with the use of historical ideas in the wider world. The new edition features: - A new chapter on history in the digital age, covering the use of information technology in historical practice - Extended coverage of the relationships between history and other disciplines - Fresh material on current trends in the practice of history - Over 35 new illustrations spread throughout the book drawn from around the world This book is essential reading for all students seeking an understanding of history as a discipline.Trade ReviewOne of the last half-century's most insightful, level-headed, and humane reflections on the practice of history and its cultural significance. * History Journal *A major, deeply reflective work upon the nature of studying and writing history. No other author has treated the subject in the same way. She writes with equal facility about the history of society, high-politics, economics and science and displays a genuine understanding of the differing spirits and methods of sociology, anthropology and philosophy and the ways in which these have made an impact upon history. * Ronald Hutton, Professor of History, University of Bristol, UK *Now thoroughly revised and updated, Jordanova's book offers a distinctive and insightful perspective on the historical enterprise. Wise, witty and gracious, it is highly recommended. * Patrick Finney, UK Editor, Rethinking History *Ludmilla Jordanova’s History in Practice remains an essential guide to what History is, how it has and can be done, and how it might be done better. Subtle, yet refreshingly forthright, and above all humane, it offers a thought-provoking discussion of History as a methodologically diverse ‘craft’. Wide-ranging and erudite in her range of reference, Jordanova sets History in the context of other academic disciplines, including philosophy, anthropology, psychology and literature, and explores its interrelation with these disciplines. She provides an authoritative map of the variant forms of historical practice, examines the kinds of knowledge produced by historians, surveys trends and fashions, and considers the opportunities and challenges posed by the twenty first-century ‘digital age’. Reading (and re-reading) History in Practice reminds me why I became an historian; but it also reminds me why History matters. It is an inspirational book. * Paul Readman, Professor of History, King’s College, London, UK and author of Storied Ground: Landscape and the Shaping of English National Identity *History is the most slippery of disciplines, hard to grasp and harder still to pin down. Ludmilla Jordanova makes it look easy. With deft precision she lays out the tools that furnish History’s workshop, sharpening their functionality while explaining their use, with the occasional cautionary note. Neither a how-to manual nor a philosophical treatise, History in Practice has long been a vital resource for every student of History. This new edition hones its relevance for a new generation of historians. * Penny Russell, Bicentennial Professor of Australian History, University of Sydney, Australia *There is no better introduction to what historians do and how they do it. Concise, elegant and informative, this book will enable anyone interested in history to find their way in a discipline that offers virtually unlimited opportunities for exploration. * Lynn Hunt, Distinguished Research Professor of History, University of California LA, USA *Table of ContentsList of Illustrations Acknowledgements Note to Readers Introduction 1. History in General 2. Mapping the Discipline of History 3. History in the Humanities 4. History in the Social Sciences 5. The Status of Historical Knowledge 6. Periodisation 7. Public History 8. Historians’ Skills 9. History in a Digital Age 10. Trends Endnotes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisThis book is designed to help instructors effectively incorporate images and other aspects of material culture into their pedagogy in an engaging and relatable manner. The author draws on her personal experiences as an art historian of ancient art who instructs a wide variety of undergraduates. In addition to helping students to look and think critically, the book explores how the material culture of the past can be a potent tool in motivating student involvement with course content and sharpening skills vital for navigating contemporary culture.Table of Contents1 Introduction.2 Taking the Time to Look, Learning the Skills to See.3 The Past Is the New Present.4 New Approaches for Old Material.5 Letting Students Shape the Future.6 Conclusion.

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Book SynopsisA delightful compendium of the kind of facts you immediately want to share with anyone you encounter' New York TimesAn ebullient, irrepressible spirit invests this book. It is erudite and sprightly'Sunday TimesFrom the creation of the first encyclopedia to Wikipedia, from ancient museums to modern kindergarten classeshere is award-winning writer Simon Winchester's brilliant and all-encompassing look at how humans acquire, retain, and pass on information and data, and how technology continues to change our lives and our minds.With the advent of the internet, any topic we want to know about is instantly available with the touch of a smartphone button. With so much knowledge at our fingertips, what is there left for our brains to do? At a time when we seem to be stripping all value from the idea of knowing things no need for maths, no need for map reading, no need for memorisation are we risking our ability to think? As we empty our minds, will we one day be incapable of thoughtfulness?Trade Review PRAISE FOR KNOWING WHAT WE KNOW: ‘An ebullient, irrepressible spirit invests this book. It is erudite and sprightly in a way that will be familiar to anyone who has read Winchester’s wonderful histories of the Krakatoa eruption, the origins of the Oxford English Dictionary and the Atlantic (among others)’ Sunday Times ‘A book about transmitting knowledge by someone who has made his name by doing just that in the most erudite and entertaining way possible . . . a delightful compendium of the kind of facts you immediately want to share with anyone you encounter . . . Simon Winchester has firmly earned his place in history . . . as a promulgator of knowledge of every variety, perhaps the last of the famous explorers who crisscrossed the now-vanished British Empire and reported what they found to an astonished world’ New York Times ‘From schoolhouses in ancient Sumeria and Aboriginal “songlines” to GPS, Wikipedia, Google and beyond, Winchester traverses the human history of information storage and transmission in a pageant of colourful, eloquent tableaux… Don’t pigeonhole Knowing What We Know as “information science”. Rather, think of it as an intellectual autobiography: one richly stocked, ever-curious mind’s account of the multiple ways in which stored knowledge may open the road to understanding’ Financial Times ‘Winchester is a knowledge keeper for our times, and he does us all a service by writing it down’ Wall Street Journal ‘[Winchester] might be appropriately dubbed the One-Man Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge of our own era. Whatever his subject, Winchester leavens deep research and the crisp factual writing of a reporter . . . with an abundance of curious anecdotes, footnotes and digressions. His prose is always clear, but it is also invigorated with pleasingly elegant diction … Informative and entertaining throughout’ Washington Post

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Book SynopsisIn A Sextet on the Great War, Perry Anderson picks out from the highly charged historiography on the First World War one leading historian from each of the major powers that survived the conflagration: Fritz Fischer, famous historian of German war-guilt; Pierre Renouvin, a disabled serviceman and preeminent authority on the conflict in France; Luigi Albertini, the Italian newspaper tycoon who unlike any other scholar on the Grear War was himself a leading actor in pitching his country into it; Paul W. Schroeder, the American expert on the system of European interstate relations and its breakdown in 1914; Keith Wilson, the one radical deviant from a patriotic consensus in Britain about the country’s role in the outbreak of the fighting; and, from Australia (a dominion dragooned into the Great War by the British), Christopher Clark, acclaimed author of The Sleepwalkers and Revolutionary Spring. A Sextet on the Great War is a compelling analytical

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Book SynopsisWas he influenced by the environment, he asks himself, and if so, how? Ginzburg uses his own experience to examine the elusive and constantly evolving nature of history and historical research.Trade ReviewGinzburg is known internationally for his studies of what might be called the interface between learned and popular culture. This collection of eight essays explores the methodological foundations of his historical analysis. -- David Herlihy Journal of Interdisciplinary HistoryTable of ContentsPreface to the 2013 EditionPreface to the Italian EditionTranslators' NoteBibliographical NoteWitchcraft and Popular Piety: Notes on a Modenese Trial of 1519From Aby Warburg to E. H. Gombrich: A Problem of MethodThe High and the Low: The Theme of Forbidden Knowledge in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth CenturiesTitian, Ovid, and Sixteenth-Century Codes for Erotic IllustrationClues: Roots of an Evidential ParadigmGermanic Mythology and Nazism: Thoughts on an Old Book by Georges DumézilFreud, the Wolf-Man, and the WerewolvesThe Inquisitor as AnthropologistNotesIndex of Names

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Book SynopsisIn his new preface, Ginzburg reflects on the interplay of chance and discovery, as well as on the relationship between anomalous cases and historical generalizations.Trade ReviewA work of genuine intellectual distinction. It is an unusually original contribution to the study of witchcraft in early modern Europe, but its importance is far from being exhausted by that description. -- Peter Burke New York Review of Books A tour-de-force of reconstruction, building out of scattered and fragmentary sources a whole world for the reader to inhabit. -- Anthony Pagden London Review of BooksTable of ContentsPreface to the 2013 EditionForeword by Eric J. HobsbawmTranslators' NotePreface to the English EditionPreface to the Italian EditionI. The Night BattlesII. The Processions of the DeadIII. The Benandanti between Inquisitors and WitchesIV. The Benandanti at the SabbatAppendixNotesIndex of Names

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Book SynopsisThis book reinterprets the history of nineteenth and twentieth-century revolutions by composing a constellation of "dialectical images": Marx's "locomotives of history," Alexandra Kollontai's sexually liberated bodies, Lenin's mummified body, Auguste Blanqui's barricades and red flags, the Paris Commune's demolition of the Vendome Column, among several others. It connects theories with the existential trajectories of the thinkers who elaborated them, by sketching the diverse profiles of revolutionary intellectuals-from Marx and Bakunin to Luxemburg and the Bolsheviks, from Mao and Ho Chi Minh to José Carlos Mariátegui, C.L.R. James, and other rebellious spirits from the South-as outcasts and pariahs. And finally, it analyzes the entanglement between revolution and communism that so deeply shaped the history of the twentieth century. This book thus merges ideas and representations by devoting an equal importance to theoretical and iconographic sources, offering for our troubled present a new intellectual history of the revolutionary past.Trade ReviewOffering one of the most unsentimental yet non-reactionary meditations on revolution ever written, Traverso comes not to bury or praise the earthly drive to "take heaven by storm" but to understand it anew. Enriched by a lifelong study of historiography and politics, immense historical knowledge, theoretical polyamory, and a compelling artistic eye, this book also features splendid humility in exploring its slippery, complex and important subject. For those who long to craft a different order of things, Traverso's account is essential. For those who want to ponder what spirits revolutions or makes shipwrecks of them, this rare work roams the globe and the library, reflecting on Phnom Penh and Havana, not only Paris and Moscow, and thinking with Weber, Arendt, Fanon and Constant, not only Trotsky, Lenin and Mao. -- Wendy Brown, author of In the Ruins of NeoliberalismThis brilliant essay on the images of revolutions is a unique experiment, which has no equivalent in the vast historiographic literature on the subject. Inspired by Marx, Trotsky ,and Walter Benjamin, it is built as a montage of dialectical images, which function as lamps that illuminate the past. Enzo Traverso, probably the most gifted historian of his generation, does not hide his hostility to what he calls the "octopus of universal commodity reification"; without idealizing the past revolutions , he wants to preserve, in this fascinating and heterodox piece of research, the memory of historical experience. Quoting Benjamin: we cannot ignore the claim that the past has on us. * Michael Löwy *A perfect partnering of author and subject! Enzo Traverso is the Marxist scholar most gifted to present us with a masterfully articulated appraisal of the perplexing presence of concepts and images of revolutions in the political imagination. His astonishing scholarly expertise is on display with stunning elegance to reveal a rich tapestry of material from the 19th and 20th centuries, along with a multitude of riveting actors and thinkers. Revolution is a monumental advance in its sophisticated and supple interpretations; it is also a virtuoso performance in the art of refreshingly precise, rigorously compact exposition, complemented by a novelist's flair for narrative power and dramatic verve. -- Alan Wald, H. Chandler Davis Collegiate Professor Emeritus, University of MichiganBrilliant and beautiful. Now this book exists, it's hard to know how we did without it. -- China MiévilleVividly written, full of sparkling details and sharp theoretical insights... -- Hannah Proctor * Radical Philosophy *Something for every revolutionary. * Socialist Worker *

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Book SynopsisThis unprecedented book, by one of Britain''s leading intellectual historians, describes the intellectual impact that the study and consideration of the past has had in the western world over the past 2500 years, treating the practise of history not as an isolated pursuit but as an aspect of human society and an essential part of the cultural history of Europe and America. It magnificently brings to life the work of historians from the Greeks to the present, explaining their distinctive qualities and allowing the modern reader to appreciate and enjoy them. But is also examines subjects as diverse as the new perspectives brought about by the rise of Rome, the interests of medieval chroniclers, the effects of Romanticism and the emergence towards the end of the nineteenth century of an historical profession. It sets out to be not the history of an academic discipline, but a history of choice: the choice of pasts, and the ways they have been demarcated, investigated, presented and even soTrade Review'if historians have a Valhalla, a hall of heroes, he has earned his place with this book' - Dominic Sandbrook, Evening Standard 'a triumphant success. The result is a highly enjoyable book, based on a vast amount of reading, written with attractive simplicity, brimming with acute observations, and often very witty. Anyone who wants to know what historical writing has contributed to our culture should start here' - Keith Thomas, Guardian 'This book is magnificent: a daunting combination of vast range, profound learning and high literary art. In 500 superbly crafted pages (miraculously succinct for the task in hand), Burrow's chapters treat of almost every imporant historian of the last two-and-a-half thousand years' - John Adamson, Sunday Telegraph

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"[Drucker] provides a rich, detailed account of how western thinkers have understood the origins and development of the alphabet. . . . Millions learn the alphabet in childhood, and Drucker's study opens up a fascinating realm of ideas and scholarship into its origins and meaning." * BBC History Magazine *"In its wealth of detail and generous illustration [Inventing the Alphabet] goes some way toward reproducing the experience of reading the catalogs and compendia it describes." * New York Review of Books *"Drucker takes us on a journey through centuries of intellectual history, from the musings of the first historians to the scientific methods of modern archaeologists and linguists. At the heart of it all is the alphabet: an invention that is both ubiquitously banal and world-changingly innovative." * History Today *"This latest book by Drucker is not primarily a new history of the alphabet, although it provides this history, but a historiographical work that traces the ways beliefs in Western thought shaped the discourse around the alphabet’s origins. The author asks who knew what when and how people conceptualized the evidence available to them, from the earliest classical and biblical accounts to contemporary archaeological, epigraphical, and paleographical syntheses. . . Highly recommended." * Choice *"Johanna Drucker​ ’s Inventing the Alphabet is all about writing’s material histories." * London Review of Books *"For ill and for good, our world remains profoundly alphabetized, from classroom rosters, to bureaucratic systems, to the labeling of our very genetic essence, even if random access, not ABC order, has become our everyday search mode. As Drucker somewhat shockingly reminds us. . . the ancient analog alphabet forms the substrate of our digital world." * Critical Inquiry *"Stunning. . . . Drucker deserves our full recognition for this masterpiece of bibliographical scholarship." * Publishing Research Quarterly *“With Inventing the Alphabet, Drucker—scholar, interpreter, and designer of printed words and letters—sheds light on that which has brought humankind out of darkness." -- Steven Heller, author, design critic, and cochair of the SVA MFA Design DepartmentTable of ContentsIntroduction 1. When Did the Alphabet Become "Greek"? 2. Divine Gifts: Original Letters, Moses, and the Tablets at Mount Sinai 3. Medieval Copyists: Magical Letters, Mythic Scripts, and Exotic Alphabets 4. The Confusion of Tongues and Compendia of Scripts 5. Antiquity Explained: The Origin and Progress of Letters 6. The Rhetoric of Tables and the Harmony of Alphabets 7. Modern Archaeology: Putting the Evidence of the Alphabet in Place 8. Reading the Early Alphabet: Epigraphy and Paleography 9. Alphabet Effects and the Politics of Script Coda: Alphabetic Agency and Global Hegemony Notes Selected Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisA book on the study of history by G R Elton, it makes a major contribution to the question 'What is history?'. It sets out Elton's experience in the study, writing and teaching of history. It includes an which assesses the book's relationship to Elton's work, and its impact on the historical profession and its lessons for historians.Table of ContentsPreface. 1. Purpose. The Present Debate. Autonomy. Kinds. Rivals. Purpose. 2. Research. The Possibility of Historical Truth. Facts and Methods. The Sources. Evidence and Criticism. Imagination. 3. Writing. Controls. Patterns and Bias. Style. Audience. Categories. Length. Analysis and Narrative. 4. Teaching. Undergraduate Teaching: What?. Undergraduate Teaching: How?. The Graduate Student. Afterword. (Richard J. Evans). Notes. Index.

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Book SynopsisSteven Harper pays tribute to a respected teacher with this biography of a distinguished William Smith Mason Professor of History at Northwestern University, Richard W. Leopold. When Leopold invited him to review his biographical materials to prepare a New York Times obituary, Harper began to catch glimpses of a deeper history in Leopold's life.Trade ReviewThere are few great teachers in any generation. One such during the second half of the twentieth century was Richard W. Leopold, a professor of the history of American foreign policy Harvard and Northwestern. Steven J. Harper has caught the spirit and tone of Dick Leopold's life and career in this graceful, admiring biography which aptly describes the stunning qualities of instruction, academic citizenship, and professional scholarship that Leopold exemplified in his distinguished career."" - John Morton Blum, Sterling Professor of History (emeritus) at Yale University and author of The Republican Roosevelt, V was for Victory and other books""We Americans today live too much in historical bubbles, protected from the cleansing knowledge of time and man's history. And so, how greatly we need this well-written and evocative book about one of our greatest twentieth century teachers! Here, in the amazing and inspiring life of Richard Leopold, a man impassioned by excellence, we can see and feel one of the great and searching historic minds of our time-and grapple with our past anew. Personally, I am immensely comforted and inspired by this rare narrative of a man who never bent the truth."" - Georgie Anne Geyer, syndicated columnist, Universal Press Syndicate, and author of Guerrilla Prince, and other books""What a privilege to have had Leopold for a teacher and a friend! I thoroughly enjoyed this book and learning of his entire life. I only wish I'd known more of it when I visited him over the years."" - Phyllis E. Oakley, former Assistant Secretary of State and adjunct professor, Johns Hopkins University, School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS)

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Book SynopsisLike every society, the Greek communities needed a unifying concept of their past, an 'intentional history'. In direct interaction with poets, they formed an aesthetic network in which myths were considered as historical events. This volume considers how Greeks' histories were consciously employed to help shape political and social realities.

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