Author: E H Carr
Publisher: Penguin
Year: 1990
Language: English
Pages: 200
ISBN/UPC (if available): 0140135847
Description
Simply to show how it really was. Ranke, stating what he considered the proper aim of the historian, filled generations of historians after him with a burning zeal for objectivity.
But who is to say how things were? In formulating a modern answer to the question What is History? Professor Carr shows that the facts of history are simply those which historians have selected for scrutiny. Millions have crossed the Rubicon, but the historians tell us that only
Caesar’s crossing was significant. All historical facts come to us as a result of interpretative choices by historians influenced by the standards of their age.
Yet if absolute objectivity is impossible, the role of the historian need in no way suffer; nor does history lose its fascination. This posthumous edition includes new material by R W Davies which presents the major conclusions of Professor Carr’s notes for the second edition and a new preface by the author, in which he reflects on the current mood of pessimism and despair among Western intellectuals and calls for a saner and more balanced outlook on the future.
REVIEW
E H Carr, author of the monumental History of Soviet Russia, now proves himself to be not only our most distinguished modern historian but also one of the most valuable contributors to historical theory.
-Spectator
Contents
Introductory Note
Preface to Second Edition
The Historian and his Facts
Society and the Individual
History, Science and Morality
Causation in History
History as Progress
The Widening Horizon
From E H Carr’s Files: Notes towards a Second Edition of What is History?
By R W Davies
Index