![]() "Essential reading for coming generations. Evans brings "a remarkable range, a nose for the archives, a taste for controversy, and a fluent pen" (The New Republic) to this splendid work. Evans defends this commitment to historical knowledge from the attacks of postmodernist critics who see all judgments as subjective. To materials that are frustratingly meager, or overwhelmingly profuse, they bring an array of tools that range from agreed-upon rules of documentation and powerful computer models to the skilled investigator's sudden insight, all employed with the aim of reconstructing a verifiable, usable past. ![]() Evans shows us how historians manage to extract meaning from the recalcitrant past. Evans defends this commitment to historical knowledge from the attacks of postmodernist critics who deny the possibility of achieving any kind of certain knowledge about the past. Richard Evanss In Defense of History not only defends historians from these fashionable barbs, but shows how the discipline is adapting to this assault on its empiricist base. ![]() In his compact, intriguing survey, Richard J. Historys claims to objective knowledge have recently been critiqued by post-foundationalists who argue that facts cannot exist outside of the 'prison house' of language. Carr's What Is History?, a classic introduction to the field, may now give way to a worthy successor. A master practitioner gives us an entertaining tour of the historian's workshop and a spirited defense of the search for historical truth.Į. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |