ENGLISH

Historicism (The New Critical Idiom)

Book information

Publisher
Routledge
Year
1995
ISBN
0415133114, 9780415133111
LCC
PN81 .H26 1996
Open Library ID
OL784952M
Language
english
Format
PDF
Filesize
1 MB (1363487 bytes)
Series
The New Critical Idiom
Pages
235\235
Topic
History
Time added
2010-08-30 15:18:36

Description

Hamilton's book advertizes itself as an accomplishment in finally clarifying for us the confusing and controversial notion of "historicism." It provides a good survey of the key figures and philosophical commitments in the history of historicism and attempts to deal with the stakes involved in contemporary investments of the concept. But Hamilton's text turns out to be, at best, a kind of apologia and, at worst, a "how-to." Consequently, his assessment--and understanding, I'm affraid--of historicism is delivered from the position of a believer and advocate. This contributes to the reproduction of a lot of conventional mantras about historicism, such as, for example, that it somehow represented--and still does--an "anti-modernist" position. We are still modernist, in a sense, and this is why, as this book demonstrates, it is difficult to think outside the framework of historicism. A provocative book, but not deserving of its authoritative title.

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