Customer Reviews

History and Historians: A Historiographical Introduction (6th Edition)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This short book does a good job of providing an overview of Western historical thinking from Herodotus and Thucydides to the modern period. The first chapter is a brief discussion of why we study history to begin with: curiosity, a need to bring order to the world, identify cause and effect, study the identity of a people, calculate the consequences of our actions, and to provide society's memory.

Chapters two and three review the evolution of historical writings and their approach. Gilderhus begins with the ancient historians with a discussion of history in Greece and Rome and then reviews the influence of Christian thought; a paradigm against which history revealed the workings of God's plan. This perspective began to disappear as Western Christianity divided and historians of various religious persuasions wrote histories supporting their perspectives of the past. Enlightenment historians went on to reject a religious approach or even a factual approach wishing to rely on reason for their proofs while at the same time denigrating the past. This gave way to the influence of romanticism and nationalism in the 19th century which led to a more scientific approach to research and analysis. (p. 36) (In some ways this was a reaction to the emphasis on religion and God on man but it could also be a reaction to the renaissance emphasis on the greatness of classical civilizations.)

Chapter 4 then reviews the philosophical aspects (speculative approaches) of history; Gilderhus says there are three schema: cyclical, providential, and progressive (p. 49) and discusses each in turn. Chapter 5 reviews the analytical philosophical approaches to history reflected in the positivist approach (general laws exist that govern the outcomes of human affairs, and idealist thought (which believed that because history was about man, who had free will, history was not repeatable). Chapter six is a simple overview of types of historical papers and research. The last chapter summarizes the state of historiography as it has evolved in the last century.

Entire books have been written about each of the areas addressed in Gilderhus' book; the strength of this book is that it provides a simple easy-to-read overview of the whole field and the thinking behind history.

I have to preface this with the caveat that my graduate-level historiography class was taught by Dr. Gilderhus, though that was several years ago. Then again, he didn't see the need to use this text at that level of study. Where I first read it was in my undergraduate historiography class. The text isn't earth-shattering nor meant as such. As an undergraduate though, I found the text highly informative on the basics of the history of history, its theory and various methodologies. Dr. Gilderhus has come up with perhaps the most elegant, but not simplistic, definition of what history is that I have yet to read. For Dr. Gilderhus, history is "the true story of the human past." It's a definition that works well for the non-history types but still offers something for more advanced readers to unpack. And that's the beauty of this text. It's not meant as a complex treatise on historiography but as an initial pass at the major figures, modes of thought and methodological developments that have brought Western historical thought to where it stands today. For a beginning student or avid amateur you'll find the text an accessible entry-point into historiography. While there are many other texts, such as E.H. Carr's "What Is History?" that provide a deeply nuanced examination of the field, having the basics already laid out allows one to focus on those nuances without needing to look up a name every other page.

I would recommend this text to anyone, even advanced-level history students, who want to quickly grasp the basics of historiography. As any good primer text does, "History & Historians" invites the reader to delve deeper into the topic but still stands on its own strengths. I gave the text only a three-star rating because, as I said, it isn't a masterful and innovative text. Instead, the text is a solid, cursory overview of the field. Complaints about its lack of depth miss the point. If you want complex theory then move on to Hayden White or Lynn Hunt. But as an introductory text it does the job and does it well.

An excellent book introducing the origins of historical thought, the changing ideas and methods of history, and the challenges of history in the postmodern era. Also, the introduction provides a great discussion on the importance of studying history. A very understandable and readable book, only 135 pages. I recommend it highly for anyone interested in studying historical philosophy.

Mark Gilderhus' book is a concise look at the evolution of historical research and reporting in a well written, easy to read format which brings life to a less than exciting subject. I was assigned this book for a graduate course on historiography. History and Historians is a good companion to David Fischer's Historians' Fallacies, Davidson and Lytle's After the Fact and Richard Evans' In Defense of History.

I liked it because it is a concise, and clear interpretation of the historiography of history research and writing.

This book is surprisingly quite meandering for being only 156 pages including index. I don't understand the reviews I've read of this book. It wasn't particularly well written, interesting to read, or particularly well reasoned. There are a number of statements made in the book that the author does not adequately substantiate. I find his understanding of scientific methodology quite inadequate. How could Greek approaches to history be "scientific" when their "science" wasn't even scientific? I could see this book being used in a high school history class to give students a very superficial, overly simplified view of history as a discipline, which is typical for most subjects presented in high school. I strongly question the academic rigor of a history department using this book for a graduate level course.