One of the major intellectual debates at the beginning of the new century concerns the status of accounts of the past. Do historians discover or invent, construct or reconstruct the objects they study? The discussion has been particularly lively in France and in the USA, and it is therefore appropriate that a group of distinguished historians from Britain should now engage with this subject. These ten essays present a historical and critical overview of British historical thought and writing since 1900, focusing on selected periods, regions, disciplines, and themes. This challenging volume will intrigue anyone interested in the process of history writing.

“No one looking for a well-informed introduction to . . the key views of history adopted by professional historians . . could find a better one than this.” ―Richard J. Evans, author of In Defence of History A broad perspective on historical thought and writing, with a new epilogue. In this book, now published in ten languages, a preeminent intellectual historian examines the profound changes in ideas about the nature of history and historiography. Georg G. Iggers traces the basic assumptions upon which historical research and writing have been based, and describes how the newly emerging social sciences transformed historiography following World War II. The discipline’s greatest challenge may have come in the last two decades, when postmodern ideas forced a reevaluation of the relationship of historians to their subject and questioned the very possibility of objective history. Iggers sees the contemporary discipline as a hybrid, moving away from a classical, macrohistorical approach toward microhistory, cultural history, and the history of everyday life. The new epilogue, by the author, examines the movement away from postmodernism towards new social science approaches that give greater attention to cultural factors and to the problems of globalization. “The book has all the virtues one associates with Georg Iggers—lucidity, detachment, balance, and the ability to reveal the relation between trends in historical writing and their political and cultural contexts.” —Peter Burke, Cambridge University

The historian John Lukacs offers a concise history of the twentieth century—its two world wars and cold war, its nations and leaders. The great themes woven through this spirited narrative are inseparable from the author’s own intellectual preoccupations: the fading of liberalism, the rise of populism and nationalism, the achievements and dangers of technology, and the continuing democratization of the globe. The historical twentieth century began with the First World War in 1914 and ended seventy-five years later with the collapse of the Soviet Empire in 1989. The short century saw the end of European dominance and the rise of American power and influence throughout the world. The twentieth century was an American century—perhaps the American century. Lukacs explores in detail the phenomenon of national socialism (national socialist parties, he reminds us, have outlived the century), Hitler’s sole responsibility for the Second World War, and the crucial roles played by his determined opponents Churchill and Roosevelt. Between 1939 and 1942 Germany came closer to winning than many people suppose. Lukacs casts a hard eye at the consequences of the Second World War—the often misunderstood Soviet-American cold war—and at the shifting social and political developments in the Far and Middle East and elsewhere. In an eloquent closing meditation on the passing of the twentieth century, he reflects on the advance of democracy throughout the world and the limitations of human knowledge.

French Historians 1900-2000: The New Historical Writing inTwentieth-Century France examines the lives and writings of 40of France’s great twentieth-century historians. Blends biography with critical analysis of major works, placingthe work of the French historians in the context of their lifestories Includes contributions from over 30 international scholars Provides English-speaking readers with a new insight into thekey French historians of the last century

Probing the paradoxes of "the long twentieth century"--Unprecedented human opportunity and deprivation to the rise of the United States as a hegemon

The only history and theory textbook to include accessible extracts from a wide range of historical writing. Provides a comprehensive introduction to the theorists who have most inflenced twentieth-century historians. Chapters follow a consistent structure, putting difficult ideas into an accessible context. This is the only critical reader aimed at the undergraduate market.