Description
Book Synopsis What is history – a question historians have been asking themselves time and again. Does "history" as an academic discipline, as it has evolved in the West over the centuries, represent a specific mode of historical thinking that can bedefined in contrast to other forms of historical consciousness?
In this volume, Peter Burke, a prominent "Western" historian, offers ten hypotheses that attempt to constitute specifically "Western Historical Thinking." Scholars from Asia and Africa comment on his position in the light of their own ideas of the sense and meaning of historical thinking. The volume is rounded off by Peter Burke's comments on the questions and issues raised by the authors and his suggestions for the way forward towards a common ground for intercultural communication.
Trade Review “... a remarkably stimulating production, full of insights and observations that cannot fail to inform and illuminate. Although it would be an ideal text for the graduate seminar, it will prove valuable to anyone interested in the uses of the past.” · Clio
“... [an] engaging, sophisticated and scrupulous study ... a strongly recommended, introspective and thoughtful compilation which would enhance any personal or academic philosophy or history collection.” · Midwest Book Review
"... a strongly recommended, introspective and thoughtful compilation which would enhance any personal or academic Philosophy or History collection." · The Bookwatch
Table of Contents Preface to the Series
Jörn Rüsen
Introduction: Historical Thinking as Intercultural Discourse
Jörn Rüsen
PART I: THESES
Western Historical Thinking in a Global Perspective – 10 Theses
Peter Burke
PART II: COMMENTS
1. General Comments
Perspectives in Historical Anthropology
Klaus E. Müller
Searching for Common Principles: A Plea and Some Remarks on the Islamic Tradition
Tarif Khalidi
The Coherence of the West
Aziz Al-Azmeh
2. The Peculiarity of the West
Toward an Archaeology of Historical Thinking
François Hartog
Trauma and Suffering: A Forgotten Source of Western Historical Consciousness
Frank R.Ankersmit
Western Deep Culture and Western Historical Thinking
Johan Galtung
What is Uniquely Western about the Historiography of the West in Contrast to that of China?
Georg G. Iggers
The Westernization of World History
Hayden White
3. The Perspective of the Others
Western Historical Thinking from an Arabian Perspective
Sadik J. Al-Azm
Cognitive Historiography and Normative Historiography
Masayuki Sato
Western Uniqueness? Some Counterarguments from an African Perspective
Godfrey Muriuki
Programs for Historians: A Western Perspective
Mamadou Diawara
4. The Difference of the Others
Reflections on Chinese Historical Thinking
Ying-shih Yü
Must History Follow Rational Patterns of Interpretation? Critical Questions from a Chinese Perspective Thomas
H.C. Lee
Some Reflections on Early Indian Historical Thinking
Romila Thapar
PART III: AFTERWORD
Peter Burke
