Product Description

This title, first published in 1970, with revised editions in 1981, and again in 1989 has been totally rewritten. Addressing the key questions of what history is, and why and how one studies it, this is a positive affirmation of the vital importance to society of the study of the past, and of the many crucial learning outcomes which accrue from historical study. There is a great deal of new material, engaging with and rebutting postmodernist criticisms of the history of the historians, and explicating more fully the author's pioneering work on how exactly historians analyse and interpret primary sources, and how they write their articles and books.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #136364 in Books
• Published on: 2001-07-12
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

About the Author
ARTHUR MARWICK is Professor of History at the Open University. His many books include British Society since 1945 (3rd edition 1996), The Sixties: Cultural Revolution in Britain, France Italy and the United States, c.1958-c.1974 (1998) and A History of the Modern British Isles, 1914-1999: Circumstances, Events, Outcomes (2000).

Customer Reviews

Lots of information, but what an attitude!
This has to be the ultimate curate's egg of a book -- it is good in parts, but so bad in others. Marwick rests on his laurels as soon-to-be-former Professor of History at the Open University to deliver swingeing sideswipes at every aspect of the profession that he chooses to disagree with, wrapping all this up in the aura of his supposed wisdom and impartiality, lavishing praise on what he considers to be the properly historical parts of, for example, Marxists' work, while condemning their whole theoretical basis out of hand. He also creates a huge catch-all category of 'postmodernists' [which seems at points to include Marxists such as Althusser], whose alleged views and unhistorical methods he persists in deriding throughout the book.

There is a great deal of sensible, basic advice for the beginning historian here, but it is interspersed with a constant flow of comment which is either flippant and offhand, smug and sanctimonious, or bordering on the libellous. Marwick snipes at the idea of the historian as 'auteur' who can say what s/he pleases without regard to the wider profession, but in this book, that is exactly what he has done.

Marwick passes the baton to new generations of students
There is plenty in the subject of history (or to use a term that the late Prof Marwick disliked - historiography) to argue about, and this book is ample evidence of this. Should the arguments be presented in an introduction to the study of history book? Yes! The arguments between points of view are part and parcel of what makes the discipline tick.

If the previous reviewer (conveniently anonymous) dislikes the author's attitude, so much the worse for the reviewer. It is even more of a pity if potential buyers of this book are put off from buying it because a reviewer dislikes the expression of passionately held beliefs accumulated over a lifetime of devotion to the subject. Make no bones about it, Marwick was the real deal.

Don't get me wrong: I disagree with a number of Marwick's points, but disagreements stimulate thought in the reader, and that surely is the point of any book of introduction to an academic study of a subject. To write off the author's opinion as `flippant and offhand, smug and sanctimonious' misses (intentionally?) the point entirely. As for `borderline libellous' - don't make me laugh. Against who for goodness sake?

Perhaps it is too elitist for the reviewer for anyone to express a point of view cogently after much study thought and reflection. If so, how very sad. Yes, points of view are also required in introductory books. They help the intelligent reader of formulate his or her own.

This book is choc-full of helpful hints, definitions, and tips to any aspiring history student, and (especially to the first year undergraduate), is a mine of information.

Marwick has a writing style that is anything but smug and sanctimonious, and is open and friendly, with a genuine passion to teach.

`The historian at work' sections are probably the best introduction to the study of history you will read anywhere at any level, and I include Tosh, Evans, Carr, Elton, Munslow et al. in this.

For those who disagree with Marwick's augments about postmodernism in history, there are plenty of books out there giving their perspectives. To throw this book away (or worse attempt to persuade others not buy the book) because you happen to disagree with the author's passionately argued position, and then insult the author in a style far worse than anything criticised in the book is ridiculous bordering on stupid.

Marwick was a trailblazer in the study of history for all, being one of the pioneers of the Open University, and this book remains to this day as a superb parting shot from a genuine educator.