Product Description

Looking first at the processes which have "professionalized" history and at the relations between what is coming to be called public history (museums, the heritage industry and the mass media) and academic history, Jordanova considers areas that she believes are of particular importance. The text examines the way historians have "divided up" their subject, and how that has changed and with what effects. Why have certain fields, such as women's history and black history, generated such intense debates about their value and validity? History has frequently been seen as something of a jackdaw subject, with a tendency to appropriate theories and concepts from other areas. Is that assumption justified? What is the nature of the links with adjacent fields, such as anthropology and literary theory? What is the status of historical knowledge? Is it in some sense objective or should we agree with those who are dismissive of such claims? Jordanova refuses to mystify what historians do and treats historical methods critically; she also resists the separation of theory from practice and finishes with a personal view of where the discipline is going, indicating the challenges it faces and why its future is significant.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #296809 in Books
• Published on: 2000-02-25
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 240 pages

Review
"A major, deeply reflective work upon the nature of studying and writing history....No other author has treated the subject in the same way."--Ronald Hutton, University of Bristol
"Achieves what I had thought increasingly impossible in this congested field: it says something fresh, stimulating, and thought provoking. It is, to my mind, a very significant contribution to current debates about the nature of history in offering an account which is simultaneously rooted in common sense and the realities of day-to-day historical practice and engaged with theoretical debates"-- Patrick Finney, University of Wales, Lampeter

From the Publisher
A book no one interested in history should ignore...
Comments on the book:

' A major, deeply reflective work upon the nature of studying and writing history. No other author has treated the subject in the same way. She writes with equal facility about the history of society, high politics, economics and science and displays a genuine understanding of the differing spirits and methods of sociology, anthropology, and philosophy and the ways in which these have made an impact upon history.' [Ronald Hutton, Professor of History, University of Bristol]

'This book achieves what I had thought increasingly impossible in this congested field: it says something fresh, stimulating, and thought-provoking. It is a very significant contribution to current debates about the nature of history in offering an account which is simultaneously rooted in common sense and the realities of day-to-day historical practice AND engaged with theoretical debates.' [Patrick Finney, Lecturer in History, University of Wales, Lampeter]

About the Author
Ludmilla Jordanova, Professor of Visual Arts, University of East Anglia, UK

Customer Reviews

good book for a history student
Contrary to the previous review this book is a good book for undergraduate history students. Jordanova herself states in the prelimanaries of the book that she is not writing a normal book. She geared the book towards students and therefore will not have all of the accepted historical writing rules. The book is good for learning how history relates to other fields as well as what it is like to study history for a living. Do not buy this book if you want to source from it because it is not that kind of book. It is the kind of book a professor would use in a second year historiography course to get students to be interested in history without falling asleep.

Not the best buy ever!
Jordanova has produced a book that is both infuriating and inaccessable. As a first year History student I was advised to but this as an introduction to the study of history. I would like to tell any other student given this advice - DO NOT BOTHER BUYING THIS BOOK. Whereas it might provide a deep and inciteful account it does not lend itself to a selective read. I challenge anyone to be able to find a usable quote or idea that does not last page and page. Jordanova seems to enjoy making an argument as inconcise as possible. For the student of history there are much better introductions to the subject available. I would recommend Black and MacRaild's 'Studying History' or Tosh's 'In Pursuit of History'

Sightseeing of modern history
Goes a long way in answering the question What is history? Complemets Carr in being more practically oriented. The style requires more effort to concentrate than Carr's but is still quite effortless to read.