In Defense of History

by Richard J. Evans

Overview

A master practitioner gives us an entertaining tour of the historian's workshop and a spirited defense of the search for historical truth.

E. H. Carr's What Is History?, a classic introduction to the field, may now give way to a worthy successor. In his compact, intriguing survey, Richard J. Evans shows us how historians manage to extract meaning from the recalcitrant past. To materials that are frustratingly meager, or overwhelmingly profuse, they bring an array of tools that range from agreed-upon rules of documentation and powerful computer models to the skilled investigator's sudden insight, all employed with the aim of reconstructing a verifiable, usable past. Evans defends this commitment to historical knowledge from the attacks of postmodernist critics who see all judgments as subjective. Evans brings "a remarkable range, a nose for the archives, a taste for controversy, and a fluent pen" (The New Republic) to this splendid work. "Essential reading for coming generations."-Keith Thomas

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393319590
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	01/17/2000
Pages:	304
Sales rank:	480,303
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.30(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Richard J. Evans is professor of modern history at Cambridge University. A preeminent historian of Germany, his books include Death in Hamburg and In Hitler's Shadow.

Table of Contents

	Acknowledgments	ix
	Preface to the American Edition	xi
	Introduction	1
1.	The History of History	13
2.	History, Science, and Morality	39
3.	Historians and Their Facts	65
4.	Sources and Discourses	89
5.	Causation in History	111
6.	Society and the Individual	139
7.	Knowledge and Power	165
8.	Objectivity and Its Limits	193
	Notes	221
	Further Reading	253
	Index	273

Editorial Reviews

Evans (history, Cambridge Univ.) defends traditional history against the onslaught of postmodernist theories, which hold that ultimate historical truth is not only unattainable but does not exist. In the process, he provides the reader with an insightful critique of the evolution of historical methodology, and by implication the historical profession, in the generation since Edward Hallett Carr's classic What Is History? (LJ 2/15/62) appeared. Evans's analysis of the link between postmodernist theory and Holocaust denial is particularly insightful. The idea that no historical "theory" is more valid than another, combined with the American notion that both sides of any issue must receive "fair" play, brings Holocaust denial dangerously close to legitimacy. Evans manages to address a number of issues without being polemical. The book is particularly useful for beginning graduate students. Recommended for all libraries.--Frederic Krome, Jacob Rader Marcus Ctr. of the American Jewish Archives, Cincinnati

Library Journal

Evans (modern history, Cambridge U.) addresses postmodernist proclamations that history is complacent, endangered, or dead. He describes history as a distinctive type of knowledge, elaborating its processes and boundaries and reassessing standard views on historiography. This edition is modified for an American readership. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Booknews

A lucid, muscular, and often sly reflection on the nature of historical knowledge by an experienced practicing historian. It is difficult to imagine a stronger or more convincing case than Evansns for the distinctiveness of historical knowledge as a mode of human thought. For in reading him, one joins company with someone who finds history a matter, as Allan Nevins long ago put it, of "free and joyous pursuit." Amid agonies of doubt about the future of history in a postmodern world, Evans, a historian of Germany (Cambridge University), confidently defends the autonomy of historical knowledge. Amid an outpouring of dire warnings about the crisis in historical studies, he bracingly champions history's enduring value even as its intellectual underpinnings undergo great change. He resolutely avoids ideology. In fact, contrary to its title, his book is more an explanation of what historians seek to accomplish than it is a defense of what's written in Clio's name; he takes the offensive against the worst excesses of postmodernism. Some may tire of Evans's steadfast centrism, but common sense may be scorned at some cost. The author doesnnt confuse a piety for history with a piety for individual historians. Rather, he brings colleagues, quick or dead, left or right, north or south, into the ring and merrily wrestles many to the ground. He does so always with respect, never with the moralistic or ideological animus of so many works in the same vein. His chapters about the history of history, historical facts, causation, and objectivity, and about issues of historical "science," morality, evidence, and power are models of their kind. A highly useful bibliographical essay tops it all off. A deft,accessible work for anyone who wishes to learn what historians do, how they think, and where they fail.

Kirkus Reviews