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Philosophy of History (Great Books in Philosophy) Georg Wilhelm Friedri Hegel Within the body of his work, Hegel's philosophy of history stands as a fascinating example of this influential German thinker's efforts to capture the multidimensional character of a broad theoretical framework. Hegel describes history as the evolution of freedom--as societies and cultures grow in awareness of, and appreciation for, the interaction of individuals with the rational goals and purposes of the greater whole. |
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History: A Very Short Introduction John H. Arnold There are many stories we can tell about the past, and we are not, perhaps, as free as we might imagine in our choice of which stories to tell, or where those stories end. John Arnold's addition to Oxford's popular Very Short Introductions series is a stimulating essay about how people study and understand history. The book begins by inviting us to think about various questions provoked by our investigation of history, and then explores the ways in which these questions have been answered in the past. Such key concepts as causation, interpretation, and periodization are introduced by way of concrete examples of how historians work, thus giving the reader a sense of the excitement implicit in discovering the past--and ourselves.
The aim throughout History: A Very Short Introduction is to discuss theories of history in a general, pithy, and accessible manner, rather than delve into specific periods. This is a book that will appeal to all students and general readers with an interest in history or historiography.
About the Series: Combining authority with wit, accessibility, and style, Very Short Introductions offer an introduction to some of life's most interesting topics. Written by experts for the newcomer, they demonstrate the finest contemporary thinking about the central problems and issues in hundreds of key topics, from philosophy to Freud, quantum theory to Islam.
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You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train: A Personal History of Our Times Howard Zinn The author of A People's History of the United States recounts his youth in the Brooklyn slums, participation as a bombardier in World War II, years as a college teacher, and role in the civil rights movement. |
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Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of History Michel-Rolph Trouillot Placing the West's failure to acknowledge the most successful slave revolt in history alongside denials of the Holocaust and the debate over the Alamo, Michel-Rolph Trouillot offers a stunning meditation on how power operates in the making and recording of history. |
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Historians' Fallacies: Toward a Logic of Historical Thought David Hackett Fischer "If one laughs when David Hackett Fischer sits down to play, one will stay to cheer. His book must be read three times: the first in anger, the srcond in laughter, the third in respect....The wisdom is expressed with a certin ruthlessness. Scarcly a major historian escapes unscathed. Ten thousand members of the AmericanHistorical Association will rush to the index and breathe a little easier to find their names absent. |
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The Houses of History: A Critical Reader in Twentieth-Century History and Theory Every piece of historical writing has a theoretical basis on which evidence is selected, filtered, and understood. This is as true of scientific empiricism as it is of poststructualism. The Houses of History provides a comprehensive introduction to the twelve schools of thought which have had the greatest influence on the study of history in the twentieth century. Ranging from Empiricism to Postcolonialism, Marxism to the Ethnohistorians, each chapter begins with an introduction to the particular school, the main protagonists, the critics, and is followed by a useful section of further readings. From the classic, such as G. R. Elton's "England Under the Tudors" and E. P. Thompson's "The Making of the English Working Class," to the recent, such as Henrietta Whiteman's "White Buffalo Woman" and Judith Walkowitz's "City of Dreadful Delight," the diverse selections collected here bring together the leading historians and theorists of the century. Comprehensive and accessible to undergraduates, The Houses of History is ideally suited to classroom use. |
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The Ominous Parallels: The End of Freedom in America Leonard Peikoff Ayn Rand chose Leonard Peikoff to be her successor as the spokesman for Objectivism. And in this brilliantly reasoned, thought-provoking work we learn why, as he demonstrates how far America has been detoured from its original path and led down the same road that Germany followed to Nazism. Self-sacrifice, Oriental mysticism, racial ?truth,? the public good, doing one?s duty--these are among the seductive catch-phrases that Leonard Peikoff dissects, examining the kind of philosophy they symbolize, the type of thinking that lured Germany to its doom and that he says is now prevalent in the United States. Here is a frightening look at where America may be heading, a clarion call for all who are concerned about preserving our right to individual freedom. |
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The Killing of History: How Literary Critics and Social Theorists are Murdering Our Past Keith Windschuttle A huge success in hardcover, The Killing of History argues that history today is in the clutches of literary and social theorists who have little respect for or training in the discipline. He believes that they deny the existence of truth and substitute radically chic theorizing for real knowledge about the past. The result is revolutionary and unprecedented: contemporary historians are increasingly obscuring the facts on which truth about the past is built. In The Killing of History, Windschuttle offers a devastating expose of these developments. This fascinating narrative leads us into a series of case histories that demonstrate how radical theory has attempted to replace the learning of traditional history with its own political agenda. |
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Introduction to the Philosophy of History: With Selections from the Philosophy of Right Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel 'An elegant and intelligent translation. The text provides a perfect solution to the problem of how to introduce students to Hegel in a survey course in the history of Western philosophy' - Graham Parkes, University of Hawaii. |
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The Historians' Paradox: The Study of History in Our Time Peter Charles Hoffer How do we know what happened in the past? We cannot go back, and no amount of historical data can enable us to understand with absolute certainty what life was like “then.” It is easy to demolish the very idea of historical knowing, but it is impossible to demolish the importance of historical knowing. In an age of cable television pundits and anonymous bloggers dueling over history, the value of owning history increases at the same time as our confidence in history as a way of knowing crumbles. Historical knowledge thus presents a paradox — the more it is required, the less reliable it has become. To reconcile this paradox — that history is impossible but necessary — Peter Charles Hoffer proposes a practical, workable philosophy of history for our times, one that is robust and realistic, and that speaks to anyone who reads, writes and teaches history. Covering a sweeping range of philosophies (from ancient history to game theory), methodological approaches to writing history, and the advantages and disadvantages of different strategies of argument, Hoffer constructs a philosophy of history that is reasonable, free of fallacy, and supported by appropriate evidence that is itself tenable. |