History: theory and methods Books

This sweeping survey of the history of work, from hunter-gatherers to dotcom telecommuters, deftly compresses thousands of years of human evolution into an incisive volume that the Toronto 'Globe & Mail' calls "a page turner of a book". It is a book about

Modern historiography embraces the notion that time is irreversible, implying that the past should be imagined as something 'absent' or 'distant.' Victims of historical injustice, however, in contrast, often claim that the past got 'stuck' in the present...

Oral traditions are historical sources of a special nature. Their special nature derives from the fact that they are "unwritten" sources couched in a form suitable for oral transmission, and that their preservation depends on the powers of memory of...

In the past sixty years, oral history has moved from the periphery to the mainstream of academic studies and is now employed as a research tool by historians, anthropologists, sociologists, medical therapists, documentary film makers, and educators at...

How does history relate to the past? According to leading historical theorists, the relation to the past in history is reducible to evidential, psychological, practical and retrospective concerns. In contrast, this volume claims that historical relations...

This book looks at the institutionalisation and refashioning of Ayurveda as a robust, literate classical tradition, separated from the assorted, vernacular traditions of healing practices. It focuses on the dominant perspectives and theories of...

This unique and detailed analysis provides the first accessible and comprehensive introduction to the origins, development, methodology of microhistory - one of the most significant innovations in historical scholarship to have emerged in the last few...

This book presents a comprehensive history of law and religion in the Nordic context. The entwinement of law and religion in Scandinavia encompasses an unusual history, not widely known yet important for its impact on contemporary political and...

This book offers a general introduction to historical sources in the history of psychiatry, delving into the range of sources that can be used to investigate this dynamic and exciting field.The chapters in this volume deal with physical sources that...

Knowledge Building in Early Modern English Music is a rich, interdisciplinary investigation into the role of music and musical culture in the development of metaphysical thought in late sixteenth-, early seventeenth-century England. The book considers...

An assessment of the role of the Middle Ages in national historiography and in modern conceptions of national identity, this book looks at relatively young nations, and regions which claim national traditions but were slow to achieve, or regain, separate...

Introduction: Beyond the Canon: History in a Globalizing World; S.Stuurman & M.Grever PART 1: THE FRAMING OF HISTORICAL KNOWLEDGE Who Needs a Canon?; P.Seixas Plurality, Narrative and the Historical Canon; M.Grever From National Canon to Historical...

Intellectual encounters abound in late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century India comprising surveyors, collectors, antiquarians, philologists and their Indian assistants. The Origins of Modern Historiography in India uncovers everyday practices...

The Logic of History reveals the rational basis for historians' descriptions, interpretations and explanations of past events. C. Behan McCullagh defends the practice of history as more reliable than has recently been acknowledged. Historians, he argues,...

Practising historians claim that their accounts of the past are something other than fiction, myth or propaganda. Yet there are significant challenges to this view, most notably from postmodernism. In Historical Theory, a prominent historian develops a...

Featuring some of the major voices in the world of art history, this volume explores the methodological aspects of comparison in the historiography of the discipline. The chapters assess the strengths and weaknesses of comparative practice in the history...

The Naturalist's Library V7: Entomology, Exotic Moths (1841) is a book written by William Jardine. The book is part of a series called The Naturalist's Library, which focuses on various aspects of natural history. This particular volume is dedicated to...

Writing Normandy brings together eighteen articles by historian Felice Lifshitz, some of which are published here for the first time. The articles examine the various ways in which local and regional narratives about the past were created and revised in...

This comprehensive international collection reflects on the practice, purpose, and functionality of queer oral history, and in doing so demonstrates the vibrancy and innovation of this rapidly evolving field.Drawing on the roots of oral history's...

List of Plates Foreword by Lord Hurd of Westwell Preface Acknowledgements The Idea The Jerusalem Years A Village in the Mountains The Early Years in Shemlan Reform Expansion The Final Years Problems Who Were They? How Well Did It Do? Appendixes Notes...

Since the early colonial period, historians have been fascinated with North America's borderlands - places where people interacted across multiple, independent political and legal systems. Today the scholarship on these regions is more robust and...

This edited collection is a major contribution to the current development of a 'material turn' in the social sciences and humanities.  It does so by exploring new understandings of how power is made up and exercised by examining the role of material...

Historians are increasingly looking beyond the traditional, and turning to visual, oral, aural, and virtual sources to inform their work. The challenges these sources pose require new skills of interpretation and require historians to consider...

Surveying the latest research, this welcome second edition of Alun Munslow's successful Deconstructing History provides an excellent introduction to the debates and issues of postmodernist history. This new edition has been updated and revised and,...

This essential collection of key articles offers a re-evaluation of the practice of history in light of current debates. Critical thinkers and practicing historians present their writings, along with clear and thorough editorial material, to examine the...

From two of the world's leading postmodern historians, this thoroughly original collection of articles allows students and researchers to understand and learn important new ways of thinking and writing about the past. This book includes a thorough...

Oral history provides a valuable way of understanding locality. This volume considers the importance of working closely with the specifics of place in the context of global issues including environmental concerns and new communication technologies...

This book is a comparative analysis of the medieval Sunni historiography of the caliphate of Uthman b. Affan and the revolt against him. By comparing treatments of Uthman in pietistic literature and universal chronicles, the work traces the gradual...

Imprisoned by History: Aspects of Historicized Life offers a controversial analysis, grounded both in philosophical argument and empirical evidence, of what history does in contemporary culture. It endorses and extends the argument that contemporary...

The contemporary Dutch historical theorist/philosopher Frank Ankersmit, an erstwhile advocate and promulgator of what has become known as "the linguistic turn" in historical theory, is very well known within the discipline. His early position with regard...

Drawing on theory and practice from five continents, The Public History Reader offers clearly written accessible introductions to debates in public history as it places people, such as practitioners, bloggers, archivists, local historians, curators or...

This book explores the issues of explanation and narration in historiography, arguing that history is not just interpretation, and that the interpretive part, important though it is, is far from wholly subjective or hostage to the historian's values...

Since the appearance of Hayden White's seminal work Metahistory in 1973, constructivist thought has been a key force within theory of history and has at times even provided inspiration for historians more generally. Despite the radical theoretical shift...

This book scrutinizes the emergence of historians participating as expert witnesses in historical forensic contribution in some of the most important national and international legal ventures of the last century. It aims to advance the debate from...

This book introduces a new way of looking at the writing of history. Rather than as the production of knowledge or the telling of stories, it sees writing history as an ethical, existential and emotional engagement with the people from the past. The...

The fifth volume of The Oxford History of Historical Writing offers essays by leading scholars on the writing of history globally since 1945. Divided into two parts, part one selects and surveys theoretical and interdisciplinary approaches to history,...

Rethinking Military History is a bold new 'thought book' that reconsiders military history at the beginning of the twenty-first century. The chapters provide a valuable and concise survey of the main themes in the study of military history from...