Making History. An introduction to the history and practices of a discipline

Description

Making History offers a fresh perspective on the study of history. It is a detailed exploration of the practice of history, of historical traditions and of the theories that surround them. Discussing the development and growth of history as a discipline and of the profession of the historian, the book encompasses a huge diversity of influences, and is organised around the following themes: • The professionalisation of the discipline, its methodology, the nature of ‘scientific’ history and the problem of objectivity • the most significant movements in historical scholarship in the last century, including the Annales School, and other variants of social and economic history • the increasingly interdisciplinary trends in scholarship, showing interconnections between history and a range of disciplines from psychoanalysis to anthropology. • theory in historical practice, looking at the social movements and ideologies that carried them, including Marxism, post-modernism and gender history • historical practice outside the academy with reference to ‘amateur’ history, heritage, film, and popular culture.