Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: Pursuit of History: Aims, Methods and New Directions in the Study of Modern History, Revised Third Edition by John Tosh ISBN: 0-582-77254-0 Publisher: Longman Pub. Date: 01 July, 2002 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $24.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.5 (2 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Tosh explains an often obtuse topic well
Comment: Early in his book, Tosh explains that "[h]ow the past is known and how it is applied to present need are open to widely varying approaches." 'Pursuit of History' is a solid effort by Tosh to trace the origins of historical study and the methodologies that have evolved over time. He explains the difference between popular history and academic history and explains the importance of the latter. The first half of the book is dedicated to showing how historians should properly do their work, including how to find and use sources as well as how to write and interpret historical findings. All are well covered. The second half of the book is much more philisophical in tone. Tosh tackles a number of questions relating to objectivity, true knowledge and the reliability of so-called facts. Simply put, he describes the battle between those who believe history is a cumulative discipline and those who view it ass a relative and interpretive excercise as well as all of those with positions in between. Most importantly, he defends the discipline's viability and importance against those who attack it, including the postmodernists (though he doesn't dismiss all of the postmodernist contributions to the field). His notes and references are plentiful and he is fair with each of the "schools" of history.
Rating: 5
Summary: Probably the best available introduction to historiography
Comment: John Tosh's "The Pursuit of History" is certainly the best introduction to historiography I have read; I imagine there are few others that equal it. Professor Tosh's analysis of what makes and unmakes an historian is excellent. He examines the "raw materials" of history -- primary sources, including documentary evidence and oral history -- in a number of chapters. Looking at the various "schools" of history writing, Tosh presents arguments both for and against the interpretation of history accordingly: for instance, he considers the merits and faults of Leopold von Ranke's method quite impressively, the Annales school, and so on.
This slinder volume belongs on every historian's shelf. It far surpasses Barbara Tuchman's much-lauded "Practicing History." Furthermore, Tosh's "Pursuit of History" is not a popularly-directed work in the negative sense of the term: that is, he doesn't water down his fine prose in order to attract a large popular reading audience; nor does he slip in corny examples from subjects the public at large tend to be endlessly attached to. Yet Tosh's work is certainly not a dry work only for academics. I think most college students in history or social science will find it especially helpful in gaining a firm grasp on the "aims and methods" of historical study.
 |
Title: Silencing the Past by Michel-Rolph Trouillot ISBN: 0807043117 Publisher: Beacon Press Pub. Date: 30 July, 1997 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
 |
Title: What Is History? by Edward Hallet Carr ISBN: 039470391X Publisher: Vintage Books Pub. Date: 12 October, 1967 List Price(USD): $11.35 |
 |
Title: History and Historians: A Historiographical Introduction (5th Edition) by Mark T. Gilderhus ISBN: 0130448249 Publisher: Prentice Hall Pub. Date: 27 March, 2002 List Price(USD): $22.20 |
 |
Title: On the Teaching and Writing of History: Responses to a Series of Questions by Bernard Bailyn, Edward Connery Lathem ISBN: 0874517206 Publisher: University Press of New England Pub. Date: 15 December, 1994 List Price(USD): $11.00 |
 |
Title: After the Fact: The Art of Historical Detection Combined by James West Davidson, Mark H Lytle ISBN: 0072294264 Publisher: McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages Pub. Date: 08 October, 1999 List Price(USD): $36.50 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
