Reading History

Reading History unites historical and critical theory to propose some concrete and practical solutions to some of the most pressing and troublesome questions in historical writing and research. Critical theorists have thrown into question the distinctions between fiction and documentary evidence. They have, further, cast doubt on the nature of truth and objectivity in the writings of historians themselves. This is essentially a debate about language: the language of document and evidence on the one hand, of interpretation and representation on the other. The perspective of critical theory has, in other words, cast doubt on the whole basis of the historical enterprise to understand and to evoke the past. Mark Poster shows that this doubt is to a significant degree unfounded. The failure by historians to confront critical theory with historiography has not only failed to reveal the major flaws in the former but also the opportunities it may open for reaching into the past in new and revealing ways. Critical theory opens as many doors as it attempts to close.
The argument of the book is made both more accessible and readily convincing by the range of examples which the author deploys, of important movements in the past and of their interpretation. He considers the history of the family, the working class, women, consumerism and of communications. He also examines the many conflicting interpretations of the French Revolution. This book is addressed first and foremost to historians, but it will also interest those in related disciplines concerned with the history of culture and literature.