A Brief History of History: Great Historians and the Epic Quest to Explain the Past [Hardcover]

Colin Wells (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 3, 2008

What Daniel Boorstin did for science in The DiscoverERs, Timothy Ferris for cosmology in Coming of Age in the Milky Way, and Robert Heilbroner for economics in The Worldly Philosophers, Colin Wells does for history in A BRIEF HISTORY OF HISTORY – a readable 90,000-word intellectual history in its most engaging and accessible form. The book is a biography of history as a living idea, linking together lively, evocative sketches of the great historians with a few bold brushstrokes summarizing their most important works. We learn how the great historians changed our understanding of history, how history itself moved forward over time as a particular way of approaching the past, and why "history" is a startlingly fluid concept, with an evolutionary course—a story, that is—all its own. Wells tells that story with zest and humor, but also with the intellectual seriousness that educated and intelligent readers demand.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

What Daniel Boorstin did for science in The Discoverers, Colin Wells now does for history in A Brief History of History. An accessible and lively biography of history as a living idea, this book brings together evocative sketches of the great historians with concise summaries of their most important works. Moving forward through the ages, Wells shows us how such brilliant minds have changed our understanding of history, how history itself moved forward over time as a way of approaching the past, and why “history” is a startlingly fluid concept, with an evolutionary course—a story—all its own.

History is the turf on which we fight our culture wars. Given its humble origins as a minor literary genre in ancient Greece, the study of history stands today as perhaps the most successful monument to the global spread of Western civilization, rivaling even science in its ubiquity. Yet it did not have to turn out that way. While tracing the evolution of history, Wells shows how this branch of knowledge has at times been rejected and scorned by those who questioned its very legitimacy.

Wells begins by arguing that history has two “parents” in the ancient Greek world, epic poetry and science, and that its first two practitioners, Herodotus and Thucydides, each took after one of those parents respectively. This dichotomy serves as a backdrop for the larger narrative that follows, in which “the scientist” dominates the writing of history until very recent times, when “the storyteller” makes a comeback.

A riveting blend of vibrant prose and penetrating insight, A Brief History of History is a must for anyone interested in how we look at the past.

From the Back Cover

THE REMARKABLE EVOLUTION OF HISTORY THROUGH THE AGES

 

What began as a minor literary genre in ancient Greece stands today as perhaps the most successful monument to the global spread of Western civilization, rivaling even science in its ubiquity. Yet it did not have to turn out that way. In A Brief History of History, the most accessible and lively biography ever of history as a living idea, Colin Wells moves forward through the ages to show how the great historians and their works have changed our understanding of history, and why “history” is a startingly fluid concept, with an evolutionary course—a story—all its own.

 

An Excerpt from A BRIEF HISTORY OF HISTORY

Here’s a question: What if Thucydides had written smut? In the LatinWest, writers like Gregory and Bede may have abandoned secular history, but on its home turf in the Greek East, the tradition of
Herodotus and Thucydides proved more, shall we say, robust . . .

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Lyons Press (October 3, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 159921122X
• ISBN-13: 978-1599211220
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.7 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #315,266 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars A Splendid Little Book, February 6, 2010

By 

Armando J. Marti (Guaynabo, PR USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Brief History of History: Great Historians and the Epic Quest to Explain the Past (Hardcover)

What a splendid little book, very entertaining, readable and well researched. I would recommend it to all my students and anyone else interested in History, including veteran well read academic historians.