{"id":50859,"date":"2026-01-09T22:06:30","date_gmt":"2026-01-09T22:06:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/?p=50859"},"modified":"2026-01-09T22:07:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T22:07:11","slug":"eric-w-sager-the-thinking-historian-a-search-for-history-as-understanding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/?p=50859","title":{"rendered":"Eric W. Sager, \u201eThe Thinking Historian: A Search for History as Understanding\u201c"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What is history? What are historians doing, when we create our histories? The need for answers is more urgent than ever. We live in an era when history is often rejected or ignored, and when all teachers of history confront formidable challenges. In the culture of screen capitalism and social media, historical knowledge is evaded in an expanding present-minded consciousness. How can history be defended, and what is it that we are defending?
This book argues that history is a mode of thinking, a form of imaginative reasoning with its own informal logic. In non-technical language and using examples from important works of history, the book defines core elements in historical thinking. These include contingency, complexity, temporality, parts and wholes, consilience, perspectives, analogy, and abduction. These elements are subsumed into the concept of imaginative reasoning. The overall argument echoes the work of hermeneutic philosophers. History is a disciplined imagination, tempered and empowered by its forms of reasoning. It embraces ethical imperatives that the historian has a duty to declare. Equipped with such understanding, historians may answer the many rejections of history and secure its place in our shared futures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Author \/ Editor information<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eric W. Sager<\/strong>, University of Victoria, Canada.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Table of Contents<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

1 Introducing the Argument<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2 A Knowledge Explosion<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3 History as Understanding<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4 Understanding Time<\/p>\n\n\n\n

5 Argumentation<\/p>\n\n\n\n

6 Parts and Wholes<\/p>\n\n\n\n

7 Consilience<\/p>\n\n\n\n

8 Perspectives<\/p>\n\n\n\n

9 Analogy<\/p>\n\n\n\n

10 Quantification<\/p>\n\n\n\n

11 Abductive Reasoning<\/p>\n\n\n\n

12 Reason and Imagination<\/p>\n\n\n\n

13 The Future<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Suggestions for Further Reading<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Index<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Language: English<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Published\/Copyright: 2025<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Published by De Gruyter Oldenbourg<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.degruyterbrill.com\/document\/doi\/10.1515\/9783111563800\/html<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

E. W. Sager: The Thinking Historian<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rezensiert f\u00fcr H-Soz-Kult von
Roger Chickering, BMW Center for German and European Studies, Georgetown University, Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.hsozkult.de\/publicationreview\/id\/reb-154513<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":50860,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[8,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-50859","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-knjige","category-novosti"],"acf":{"facebook_opis":""},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Sager.jpg?fit=800%2C1189&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":54410,"url":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/?p=54410","url_meta":{"origin":50859,"position":0},"title":"CfA: Teaching World History in the Postmodern Classroom","author":"Branimir Jankovi\u0107","date":"1. srpnja 2026.","format":false,"excerpt":"World History Bulletin, a publication of the World History Association (WHA), is seeking contributions from educators, university faculty, curriculum specialists, public historians, graduate students, and educational researchers for its upcoming issue on \u201cTeaching World History in the Postmodern Classroom.\u201d Teaching World History in the Postmodern Classroom Guest edited by Heather\u2026","rel":"","context":"U "Novosti"","block_context":{"text":"Novosti","link":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/World-history-association.png?fit=1156%2C619&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/World-history-association.png?fit=1156%2C619&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/World-history-association.png?fit=1156%2C619&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/World-history-association.png?fit=1156%2C619&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/World-history-association.png?fit=1156%2C619&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":53394,"url":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/?p=53394","url_meta":{"origin":50859,"position":1},"title":"Enzo Traverso, “Singular Pasts: The “I” in Historiography”","author":"Branimir Jankovi\u0107","date":"15. svibnja 2026.","format":false,"excerpt":"Translated by Adam Schoene Columbia University Press Pub Date: November 2022 Today, history is increasingly written in the first person. 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