What is History ?

What is History ?

Product ID: 11407

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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