Product Description

The study of history has changed dramatically in recent decades. The swiftness and scale of the shift is indisputable, but its precise nature as well as its implications remain hotly contested. History in Practice explores the discipline's breadth, its complexities and the tasks it takes on. This study by one of the liveliest and most acute practitioners in the field demystifies what historians do. It looks at history as an academic discipline but also engages with the use of historical ideas in the wider world.

Historical work has public consequences and draws considerable energy from contemporary preoccupations. For this new edition of her respected and widely used book, Ludmilla Jordanova has revised the text and added a new chapter that takes into account recent world events. She discusses the role of the internet, globalisation, world history and the current enthusiasm for military history.

This book is essential reading for all students needing an understanding of history as a discipline.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #56038 in Books
• Published on: 2006-01-27
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 272 pages

Review

'Jordanova is brilliant in exposition...makes a fine case for the inescapability of the past and the absolute essentiality of studying it.'

--English Historical Review - first edition review

'This brilliant essay abounds with penetrating yet down-to-earth insights about the practice of academic history. One of the last half-century's most insightful, level-headed, and humane reflections on the practice of history and its cultural significance...(to be) welcomed by professional historians...also accessible to general readers and undergraduates.'

--History Journal (US) - first edition review

'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 practice and engaged with theoretical debates.'

--Patrick Finney, University of Wales, Lampeter - first edition review

Review

'Jordanova is brilliant in exposition...makes a fine case for the inescapability of the past and the absolute essentiality of studying it.'

(English Historical Review - first edition review )

'This brilliant essay abounds with penetrating yet down-to-earth insights about the practice of academic history. One of the last half-century's most insightful, level-headed, and humane reflections on the practice of history and its cultural significance...(to be) welcomed by professional historians...also accessible to general readers and undergraduates.'

(History Journal (US) - first edition review )

'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 practice and engaged with theoretical debates.'

(Patrick Finney, University of Wales, Lampeter - first edition review )

'Jordanova succeeds admirably in her aim to place the practice of history in a wider disciplinary context. Not only is she alive to the constructed nature of subject boundaries and their porosity, but also to the relatively recent date of their institutionalisation.'

(Reviews in History - first edition review )

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]

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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.