– Provides the most comprehensive study of the question ‘why do we study the past?’ by examining the way in which historians and many others have answered that question over the last two and a half millennia<\/p>\n\n\n\n
– Allows a reconsideration of the development of the historical discipline over the long term, recasting many familiar historiographical debates in new terms<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u00a0– Goes well beyond looking at the attitudes of individual historians and historical schools to set the development of the discipline into the context of intellectual, cultural, and political changes<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Description<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n What is the point of history? Why has the study of the past been so important for so long? Why History? A History<\/em> contemplates two and a half thousand years of historianship to establish how very different thinkers in diverse contexts have conceived their activities, and to illustrate the purposes that their historical investigations have served. Whether considering Herodotus, medieval religious exegesis, or twentieth-century cultural history, at the core of this work is the way that the present has been conceived to relate to the past. Alongside many changes in technique and philosophy, Donald Bloxham’s book reveals striking long-term continuities in justifications for the discipline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Introduction
\n\n\n\nTable of Contents<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
1. Classical History between Epic and Rhetoric
2. History, Faith, Fortuna
3. The ‘Middle Age’
4. Renaissances and Reformations
5. Society, Nature, Emancipation
6. Nationalism, Historicism, Crisis
7. Turns to the Present
8. Justifying History Today
Bibliography<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nAuthor Information<\/h4>\n\n\n\n