What is History??

Ok- so I posted on the Philosophy forum, asking if there are any introductory books- I got such a good response I thought I'd tried the same here

The only 'History' I've ever studied was part of my German A2 literarture paper- which of course doesn't really count, and I would like to understand it better if I am going to study it at university (I'm doing MML)

firstly- can anyone recommend any introductory books?

secondly- does anyone know if there are any podcasts/sites with talks or interviews about history- particularly 'what history is' and other theoretical questions about history as a subject as opposed to just straightforward informative accounts of a particular event or period

thanks in advance :smile:

Reply 1

QI Elf

17

There is a book called What Is History? by Edward H Carr.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/What-History-Introduction-Richard-Evans/dp/0333977017/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1239799400&sr=8-1

Reply 2

Sartre_1337

4

In Defence of History by R.J. Evans
What is History? by E.H. Carr

read this pair and you'll be well on your way :smile:

OP

great- thanks!

necessarily benevolent

14

What Is History? - Carr
The Practice of History - Elton
The Historian's Craft - Bloch
Re-thinking History - Jenkins
The Postmodern History reader - Jenkins
Studying History - Black
In Defence of History - Evans

My own views are in the spoiler :ninja:

Spoiler

Reply 5

Lysdexia

Using my amazingly philosophical mind, I answered that question with "stuff what happened" a few weeks ago.

Reply 6

Oswy

15

If you're just starting out I'd recommend Richard J. Evans' In Defence of History as a starting point. I'd also recommend a book Fifty Key Thinkers on History by Marnie Hughes-Warrington to get a flavour of the variety of histories written with brief but useful snippets relating to theory and philosophy in each case. Other favourites of mine include Willie Thompson's What Happened to History?, Matt Perry's Marxism and History and John Tosh's The Pursuit of History. All these books should be relatively easy to get second-hand from somewhere like abe-books or even amazon. It may seem strange but I'd also recommend getting the Oxford Dictionary of Sociology, you'll be surprised how much this will help as a reference, especially if you're wandering into theory-orientated history.

Reply 7

claire_x

2

Hey the books already mentioned are great, and there's quite a few nice articiles on 'What is History' from this website http://www.history.ac.uk/ihr/Focus/Whatishistory/index.html

It's really useful!

Reply 8

Cessie

2

Look at any uni course wesbite on historiography!

Reply 9

Melancholy

20

Oswy

If you're just starting out I'd recommend Richard J. Evans' In Defence of History as a starting point. I'd also recommend a book Fifty Key Thinkers on History by Marnie Hughes-Warrington to get a flavour of the variety of histories written with brief but useful snippets relating to theory and philosophy in each case. Other favourites of mine include Willie Thompson's What Happened to History?, Matt Perry's Marxism and History and John Tosh's The Pursuit of History. All these books should be relatively easy to get second-hand from somewhere like abe-books or even amazon. It may seem strange but I'd also recommend getting the Oxford Dictionary of Sociology, you'll be surprised how much this will help as a reference, especially if you're wandering into theory-orientated history.

I agree with this. R J Evans is relatively easy to read compared to E H Carr. That said, I read Carr first and Evans second because it almost seemed as if Evans was challenging Carr's work (and, indeed, chronologically it makes sense). (Incidentally, I'm rather surprised a historian like Oswy would favour Evans to Carr :p:

)

I know this might sound strange, but to get a taste for which author you'll enjoy - Elton, Evans, Tosh... - it might be worthwhile having a look at this site. Look at the past papers for the AEA History and have a look at the sources - they are lengthy extracts from books on historiography (usually).

What is History??

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