
What was History?
The Art of History in Early Modern Europe
Anthony Grafton(Author)
Cambridge University Press
Published on 1. March 2007
Book
Paperback/Softback
330 pages
978-0-521-69714-9 (ISBN)
Article exhausted; check for reprint
Description
From the late-fifteenth century onwards, scholars across Europe began to write books about how to read and evaluate histories. These pioneering works - which often take surprisingly modern-sounding positions - grew from complex early modern debates about law, religion, and classical scholarship. In this book, based on the Trevelyan Lectures of 2005, Anthony Grafton explains why so many of these works were written, why they attained so much insight - and why, in the centuries that followed, most scholars gradually forgot that they had existed. Elegant and accessible, What Was History? is a deliberate evocation of E. H. Carr's celebrated and icononclastic Trevelyan Lectures on What Is History?, and will appeal to a broad readership of students, scholars and historical enthusiasts. Anthony Grafton is one of the most celebrated historians writing in English today, and What Was History? is a powerful and imaginative exploration of some central themes in the history of European ideas.
Reviews / Votes
'What was History? exhibits all [Grafton's] customary virtues of wit, learning, and literary sprightliness.' The New York ReviewMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
Cambridge
United Kingdom
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Illustrations
12 Halftones, unspecified
Dimensions
Height: 216 mm
Width: 140 mm
Thickness: 19 mm
Weight
420 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-521-69714-9 (9780521697149)
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Book
03/2012
Cambridge University Press
€30.00
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Person
Anthony Grafton is Henry Putnam University Professor of History at Princeton University, and one of the most distinguished and influential cultural historians writing today. His many previous publications include The Footnote (Harvard University Press, 1997), Leon Battista Alberti (Harvard University Press and Penguin, 2000), and Christianity and the Transformation of the Book (Harvard University Press, 2006).
Content
List of plates; 1. Historical criticism in early modern Europe; 2. The origins of the Ars historica: a question mal posee?; 3. Method and madness in the Ars historica: three case studies; 4. Death of a genre; Bibliography; Index.