History and Theory: Contemporary Readings

The last twenty-five years have witnessed a real revolution in our understanding of history. During this period the "linguistic turn" occurred (with its emphasis on the rhetoric of history and the topics of narrative, the poetics of historical representation, the political dimensions of history, the inclusion of dispossessed groups as subjects of history, and insights gleaned from postmodernism and feminism). This "turn" itself inspired spirited criticisms as well as attempts to appropriate its insights into a new account of history.This book brings together some of the most important essays in the theory of history which have produced this revolution and the responses to it. The book is organized into categories designed to capture the implications of the linguistic turn, and within these categories to provide essays which speak directly to one another. These categories include: Narrativity; Writing and Reading History; Realism, Constructivism, and Beyond; Postmodernism and the Theory of History; Representation and Trauma; Gender, Sexuality, and Sex; and Objectivity. Every effort has been made to include only essays that are clear and accessible. The essays were selected not only because of their philosophical depth but also because they develop their points by way of actual historical examples and practices in the discipline. In all of this the aim of the editors has been to make available to those interested in the nature of history recent significant reflections on this topic which arise out of historical practice and which return readers to it enlightened and revivified.