History Made Conscious

Reviews / Votes

There is no better guide to the debates over politics and history writing in our times than Geoff Eley. His deep knowledge of US, British and German historiography enables him to make a compelling case that different questions demand different theories. -- Catherine Hall In History Made Conscious, Geoff Eley covers great sweeps of the history of history since the 1960s. His work is marked by insightful observations on the circumstance which have sparked shifts in emphasis and a stimulating openness to influences from myriad intellectual currents, including the Marxist new left, feminism, cultural studies and ant-imperialism. -- Sheila Rowbotham History cannot but benefit from entering into dialogue with other disciplines and confronting the challenges of politics. Permanently putting itself into question is the key to its renewal and vibrancy. Nearly two decades since A Crooked Line, Geoff Eley unveils the complex relationship between historical studies and politics. Global in scope, critical and nuanced in spirit, and illuminating from one end to the other, History Made Conscious is indispensable reading for anyone interested not only in the past, but also in the way history is written and interpreted in our time. -- Enzo Traverso So, this is where we've been, historians and history, over the past fifty years. Geoff Eley is an informed, good-tempered and unfailingly courteous-sometimes very funny-guide to the vast landscape of post-colonial and Atlantic world-historiography, showing us the distressing wranglings of scholars, the aggressive battles of the books, all over the desolate terrain of Theory. He steers us to the future, so that by seeing what has been we may become better writers and readers of history. -- Carolyn Steedman