Today, many readers could easily list thirty classic authors, or thirty classic works of art, literature, music, philosophy, or science. But would they be able to name thirty classic works of history? In spite of history's outsized influence in the world of ideas, the books that made - and-remade - the history we know so well are often forgotten. In this panoramic book, distinguished historian Jaume Aurell sets out to introduce readers to a new canon of historical writing. Taking a global approach, he places the work of Herodotus, Thucydides, Gibbon, Michelet and Braudel alongside masterpieces from a myriad of periods and civilizations, from Sima Qian, Anna Komnene, al-Masudi and Fukuzawa Yukichi to Edmundo O'Gorman, C. L. R. James and Natalie Zemon Davis. At the same time, Aurell argues that we should not see these books as a definitive canon - instead, any canon should be seen as a list-in-progress to be contested and debated anew with each generation. It is only by being exposed to these diverse and deeply significant works that we can fully perceive the shape of the discipline, and carve out a new appreciation for the art of history writing.
Rezensionen / Stimmen
"Although certain works of history are often described as 'classics', Aurell is the first scholar to offer a serious discussion of the criteria for such a description. His book is indispensable."
Peter Burke, University of Cambridge
"Jaume Aurell's obviously subjective, but well-founded choice to present thirty works representative of all the world's historical cultures is an excellent demonstration that historical writing feeds on its own memory: even if the questions posed to the past and the methods used to resolve them are evolving at a rapid pace, historians mustn't be amnesiac!"
Jean-Claude Schmitt, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris
"Global in reach, spanning twenty-five centuries, Aurell's incisive essays provide a brilliant introduction to the historian's craft as well as to the philosophy of history. Blending narrative and analysis seamlessly, Aurell makes each of his thirty historians come alive."
Carlos Eire, Yale University
Sprache
Verlagsort
Verlagsgruppe
Zielgruppe
Maße
Höhe: 228 mm
Breite: 153 mm
Dicke: 30 mm
Gewicht
ISBN-13
978-1-5095-6241-1 (9781509562411)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Klassifikation
Jaume Aurell is Professor of Medieval History at the Department of History at the University of Navarra.
Autor*in
University of Navarra, Spain
1. Greek Ethnography: Herodotus' Histories
2. Greek Politics: Thucydides' The Peloponnesian War
3. Jewish Drama: The Bible
4. Chinese Dynaties: Sima Qian's Records of the Grand Historian
5. Indian Genealogies: Itihasa-Puranas
6. Christian Great Narratives: Eusebius' Ecclesiastical History
7. Islamic Cosmovisions: al-Masudi's Meadows of Gold
8. Byzantine Chronicles: Anna Komnene's Alexiad
9. Icelandic Genealogies: Snorri Sturluson's Heimskringla
10. Iberian Autobiographies: James I of Aragon's Book of Deeds
11. Renaissance: Francesco Guicciardini's History of Italy
12. Enlightenment: Edward Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
13. Romanticism: Jules Michelet's History of the French Revolution
14. Historicism: Leopold von Ranke's History of the Latin and Teutonic Nations
15. Liberalism: Thomas Macaulay's The History of England
16. Westernizing Japan: Fukuzawa Yukichi's An Outline of a Theory of Civilization
17. Preserving Africa: Carl Christian Reindorf's The History of the Gold Coast
18. Revisioning China: Gu Jiegang's Gushibian
19. Projecting India: Jawaharlal Nehru's Glimpses of World History
20. Rethinking Latin America: Edmundo O'Gorman's The Invention of America
21. Modernism: Henry Adams's The Education of Henry James
22. Impressionism: Johan Huizinga's The Waning of the Middle Ages
23. Annales: Marc Bloch's The Royal Touch
24. Structuralism: Fernand Braudel's The Mediterranean
25. Postmodernism: Hayden White's Metahistory
26. Race: C. L. R. James's The Black Jacobins
27. Class: Edward Thompson's The Making of the English Working Class
28. Women: Natalie Zemon Davis's The Return of Martin Guerre
29. Subaltern: Ranajit Guha's Peasant Insurgency in Colonial India
30. Gender: Carolyn Steedman's Landscape for a Good Woman
