KATHERINE CLARKE
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780197262764
- eISBN:
- 9780191753947
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197262764.003.0005
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, European History: BCE to 500CE
In his Todd Memorial Lecture given in Sydney in 1997, Fergus Millar not only questioned the value of Tacitus as a source for the Principate, but also professed difficulty in discerning ‘what the ...
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In his Todd Memorial Lecture given in Sydney in 1997, Fergus Millar not only questioned the value of Tacitus as a source for the Principate, but also professed difficulty in discerning ‘what the purpose and subject of Tacitus's Annales really is’. This chapter responds to some of the issues raised by Millar both in his undergraduate lectures on Tacitus and in his Todd paper. It argues that one of Tacitus's preoccupations, particularly in the Annales, is a profound concern with the task in hand, a self-referential preoccupation not so much with the history of the Principate as an explicit theme, though that is undeniably one of Tacitus's self-imposed tasks, as with the writing of the history itself, the task of the imperial historian, and the possibilities for and limitations on historiography at this period.Less
In his Todd Memorial Lecture given in Sydney in 1997, Fergus Millar not only questioned the value of Tacitus as a source for the Principate, but also professed difficulty in discerning ‘what the purpose and subject of Tacitus's Annales really is’. This chapter responds to some of the issues raised by Millar both in his undergraduate lectures on Tacitus and in his Todd paper. It argues that one of Tacitus's preoccupations, particularly in the Annales, is a profound concern with the task in hand, a self-referential preoccupation not so much with the history of the Principate as an explicit theme, though that is undeniably one of Tacitus's self-imposed tasks, as with the writing of the history itself, the task of the imperial historian, and the possibilities for and limitations on historiography at this period.
Chris Wickham (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197264034
- eISBN:
- 9780191734601
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197264034.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Historiography
Since 1989, there have been many claims that Marxist approaches to history are out of date, but history has not stopped, and historical change continues to need explanation. There is still plenty of ...
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Since 1989, there have been many claims that Marxist approaches to history are out of date, but history has not stopped, and historical change continues to need explanation. There is still plenty of space for structural analysis of how history in all periods develops, and a Marxism un-linked to the Soviet past offers to many the most rigorous of these approaches. This volume explores from a wide variety of perspectives what Marxism has done for history-writing, and what it can, or cannot, still do. Eight historians and social scientists give their perspectives, both from Marxist and from non-Marxist positions, on history and what role Marxist analysis has in it.Less
Since 1989, there have been many claims that Marxist approaches to history are out of date, but history has not stopped, and historical change continues to need explanation. There is still plenty of space for structural analysis of how history in all periods develops, and a Marxism un-linked to the Soviet past offers to many the most rigorous of these approaches. This volume explores from a wide variety of perspectives what Marxism has done for history-writing, and what it can, or cannot, still do. Eight historians and social scientists give their perspectives, both from Marxist and from non-Marxist positions, on history and what role Marxist analysis has in it.
Simon Ditchfield
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780197266601
- eISBN:
- 9780191896057
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197266601.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, Religious Studies
This chapter uses the case study of the volume on the English mission in Daniello Bartoli’s unfinished, multi-volume Istoria della Comagnia di Giesu (1653–73) to examine whether or not a specifically ...
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This chapter uses the case study of the volume on the English mission in Daniello Bartoli’s unfinished, multi-volume Istoria della Comagnia di Giesu (1653–73) to examine whether or not a specifically Jesuit ‘way of proceeding’ can also be discerned in the Society’s history writing. It is argued that in order to understand the rhyme of Bartoli’s reason one needs to integrate his history writing with both his prior experience as a star preacher for the Society and as experienced teacher of rhetoric as well as with his wider interests in natural philosophy. By doing so, it is possible to understand better Bartoli’s intensely visual language as well as his command of such a ‘huge multiplicity of styles and almost distinct languages’ which so impressed Giacomo Leopardi (for whom Bartoli was ‘the Dante of baroque prose’) but which can make the Jesuit such a challenging read today. In the final analysis, notwithstanding his use of archival and manuscript evidence, Bartoli subordinated historical scholarship to rhetorical priorities in his mission both to celebrate his order’s achievement as well as to defend it from attack from within.Less
This chapter uses the case study of the volume on the English mission in Daniello Bartoli’s unfinished, multi-volume Istoria della Comagnia di Giesu (1653–73) to examine whether or not a specifically Jesuit ‘way of proceeding’ can also be discerned in the Society’s history writing. It is argued that in order to understand the rhyme of Bartoli’s reason one needs to integrate his history writing with both his prior experience as a star preacher for the Society and as experienced teacher of rhetoric as well as with his wider interests in natural philosophy. By doing so, it is possible to understand better Bartoli’s intensely visual language as well as his command of such a ‘huge multiplicity of styles and almost distinct languages’ which so impressed Giacomo Leopardi (for whom Bartoli was ‘the Dante of baroque prose’) but which can make the Jesuit such a challenging read today. In the final analysis, notwithstanding his use of archival and manuscript evidence, Bartoli subordinated historical scholarship to rhetorical priorities in his mission both to celebrate his order’s achievement as well as to defend it from attack from within.
Jan De Vries
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780197265321
- eISBN:
- 9780191760495
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197265321.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, Historiography
What difference has global history made to non-national historical agendas such as regional studies and studies based on ecological zones? The methods of regional history have many parallels with ...
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What difference has global history made to non-national historical agendas such as regional studies and studies based on ecological zones? The methods of regional history have many parallels with global history. Both transcend questions of boundaries and engage in methods of connection and comparison. Conceiving a polycentric early modern world challenges us to cross mental boundaries.Less
What difference has global history made to non-national historical agendas such as regional studies and studies based on ecological zones? The methods of regional history have many parallels with global history. Both transcend questions of boundaries and engage in methods of connection and comparison. Conceiving a polycentric early modern world challenges us to cross mental boundaries.
Keith Grieves
- Published in print:
- 1991
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198222996
- eISBN:
- 9780191678561
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198222996.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History, Military History
This chapter explores the problems encountered by amateur historians John Fortescue, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and John Buchan in writing general histories of World War I before an official model was ...
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This chapter explores the problems encountered by amateur historians John Fortescue, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and John Buchan in writing general histories of World War I before an official model was available. Fortescue attempted to make sense of the idea of official history but later returned to his study of Wellington's career, while Conan Doyle aspired to write an official history but was unable to depict the scale of the war. Buchan was the most successful of the three. This is because he had unrestricted access to source material and leading actors in the war and he was able to cope more effectively with the practical constraints on contemporary history writing.Less
This chapter explores the problems encountered by amateur historians John Fortescue, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and John Buchan in writing general histories of World War I before an official model was available. Fortescue attempted to make sense of the idea of official history but later returned to his study of Wellington's career, while Conan Doyle aspired to write an official history but was unable to depict the scale of the war. Buchan was the most successful of the three. This is because he had unrestricted access to source material and leading actors in the war and he was able to cope more effectively with the practical constraints on contemporary history writing.
Steven L. McKenzie
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195161496
- eISBN:
- 9780199850419
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195161496.003.0002
- Subject:
- Religion, Biblical Studies
This chapter shows that history writing in the Bible was less concerned with what actually happened in the past and was more of a creative activity, different from what modern readers typically ...
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This chapter shows that history writing in the Bible was less concerned with what actually happened in the past and was more of a creative activity, different from what modern readers typically assume. This does not mean that the Bible does not describe in places what actually took place in the past, but it does mean that was not the main objective of the ancient Israelite history writers. The first part looks at the nature of ancient history writing as recent biblical scholars have defined it and illustrates the nature of ancient history writing with examples from the book of Genesis. The second part of the chapter discusses how history in the Bible was written by exploring the work of various history writers preserved in the Bible.Less
This chapter shows that history writing in the Bible was less concerned with what actually happened in the past and was more of a creative activity, different from what modern readers typically assume. This does not mean that the Bible does not describe in places what actually took place in the past, but it does mean that was not the main objective of the ancient Israelite history writers. The first part looks at the nature of ancient history writing as recent biblical scholars have defined it and illustrates the nature of ancient history writing with examples from the book of Genesis. The second part of the chapter discusses how history in the Bible was written by exploring the work of various history writers preserved in the Bible.
Martin Jay
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780195326222
- eISBN:
- 9780199944064
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195326222.003.0002
- Subject:
- Sociology, Culture
Allegorization, it has long been recognized, is an inevitable feature of all history writing. No matter how disinterested and neutral the historian tries to be, the very act of writing a meaningful ...
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Allegorization, it has long been recognized, is an inevitable feature of all history writing. No matter how disinterested and neutral the historian tries to be, the very act of writing a meaningful narrative fashioned out of an infinity of potentially relevant texts and contexts compels him or her to create a gap between what happened in an unrecoverable past and what is represented of that past in the present. Perhaps no candidate for allegorization has been riper for multiple interpretations in modern history, as Jeffrey Alexander clearly shows, than the bewildering mixture of acts, events, and incomprehensible suffering that has come to be called the Holocaust. This chapter examines the hard questions about the transferability of vicarious trauma from one culture to another, from one historical memory to another.Less
Allegorization, it has long been recognized, is an inevitable feature of all history writing. No matter how disinterested and neutral the historian tries to be, the very act of writing a meaningful narrative fashioned out of an infinity of potentially relevant texts and contexts compels him or her to create a gap between what happened in an unrecoverable past and what is represented of that past in the present. Perhaps no candidate for allegorization has been riper for multiple interpretations in modern history, as Jeffrey Alexander clearly shows, than the bewildering mixture of acts, events, and incomprehensible suffering that has come to be called the Holocaust. This chapter examines the hard questions about the transferability of vicarious trauma from one culture to another, from one historical memory to another.
David J. Collins, S.J.
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199594795
- eISBN:
- 9780191741494
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199594795.003.0005
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity, Religion and Literature
Leading German scholars, Renaissance humanists among them, began in the late fifteenth century a sustained effort at investigating a past they could call their own and writing about it in a panegyric ...
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Leading German scholars, Renaissance humanists among them, began in the late fifteenth century a sustained effort at investigating a past they could call their own and writing about it in a panegyric way. Although the participants failed to achieve the hoped-for cultural and topographical compendium about Germany from Antiquity to their present day, their efforts, collectively dubbed the Germania illustrata project, mark an important stage in the transition from medieval to modern ways of writing history. Yet modern analysis has often read subsequent developments in scholarly history -writing into the work of these German scholars, most strikingly neglecting the profoundly religious dimension that the humanists and their collaborators admired in the German past. This chapter’s goal is therefore a fresh consideration of the place of religious history in the construction of patriotic identities in early modern Germany, with Bavaria taken as a case study.Less
Leading German scholars, Renaissance humanists among them, began in the late fifteenth century a sustained effort at investigating a past they could call their own and writing about it in a panegyric way. Although the participants failed to achieve the hoped-for cultural and topographical compendium about Germany from Antiquity to their present day, their efforts, collectively dubbed the Germania illustrata project, mark an important stage in the transition from medieval to modern ways of writing history. Yet modern analysis has often read subsequent developments in scholarly history -writing into the work of these German scholars, most strikingly neglecting the profoundly religious dimension that the humanists and their collaborators admired in the German past. This chapter’s goal is therefore a fresh consideration of the place of religious history in the construction of patriotic identities in early modern Germany, with Bavaria taken as a case study.
Laura Jockusch
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199764556
- eISBN:
- 9780199979578
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199764556.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History, Historiography
This chapter compares Jewish responses to the anti-Jewish violence of the early twentieth century to postwar efforts by survivors to document the Holocaust. Looking at victim testimony collection ...
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This chapter compares Jewish responses to the anti-Jewish violence of the early twentieth century to postwar efforts by survivors to document the Holocaust. Looking at victim testimony collection projects that emerged in the wake of the 1903 Kishinev pogrom, World War I, the Ukrainian pogroms of 1917-1921, and the Holocaust itself (as exemplified by Emanuel Ringelblum’s Oyneg Shabes archives in the Warsaw ghetto), it argues that the historical commissions and documentation centers perpetuated a unique genre of popular history writing—khurbn-forshung (destruction research)—that eastern European Jews had already developed decades before World War II. These precursors shared the goals of communal self-defense and legal, material, and moral redress and saw documenting atrocities as a way to mourn and commemorate the dead. Although the research techniques developed by earlier documenters bear direct similarities to those used later and provide a frame of reference, local conditions in the countries where survivors found themselves after the war played an equally important role.Less
This chapter compares Jewish responses to the anti-Jewish violence of the early twentieth century to postwar efforts by survivors to document the Holocaust. Looking at victim testimony collection projects that emerged in the wake of the 1903 Kishinev pogrom, World War I, the Ukrainian pogroms of 1917-1921, and the Holocaust itself (as exemplified by Emanuel Ringelblum’s Oyneg Shabes archives in the Warsaw ghetto), it argues that the historical commissions and documentation centers perpetuated a unique genre of popular history writing—khurbn-forshung (destruction research)—that eastern European Jews had already developed decades before World War II. These precursors shared the goals of communal self-defense and legal, material, and moral redress and saw documenting atrocities as a way to mourn and commemorate the dead. Although the research techniques developed by earlier documenters bear direct similarities to those used later and provide a frame of reference, local conditions in the countries where survivors found themselves after the war played an equally important role.
Hew Strachan
- Published in print:
- 1991
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198222996
- eISBN:
- 9780191678561
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198222996.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History, Military History
This chapter compares the works of influential historians B. H. Liddell Hart, C. R. M. F. Cruttwell, and Cyril Falls on the historiography of World War I. It suggests that the pre-war and wartime ...
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This chapter compares the works of influential historians B. H. Liddell Hart, C. R. M. F. Cruttwell, and Cyril Falls on the historiography of World War I. It suggests that the pre-war and wartime experiences of these historians influenced their initial approach to writing war history. It explains that Liddell Hart became increasingly critical of the whole Western Front campaign while Cruttwell was deferential on this point. Falls, on the hand, was able to prepare a balanced and unjustly neglected masterpiece.Less
This chapter compares the works of influential historians B. H. Liddell Hart, C. R. M. F. Cruttwell, and Cyril Falls on the historiography of World War I. It suggests that the pre-war and wartime experiences of these historians influenced their initial approach to writing war history. It explains that Liddell Hart became increasingly critical of the whole Western Front campaign while Cruttwell was deferential on this point. Falls, on the hand, was able to prepare a balanced and unjustly neglected masterpiece.
Hilary Gatti
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691163833
- eISBN:
- 9781400866304
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691163833.003.0005
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Political Philosophy
This chapter first turns to the problem of writing histories, beginning with a major figure in the Catholic culture of France, Jacques Auguste de Thou, whose way of writing history brought him into ...
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This chapter first turns to the problem of writing histories, beginning with a major figure in the Catholic culture of France, Jacques Auguste de Thou, whose way of writing history brought him into conflict with his own church in terms that presaged future events such as the story of Paolo Sarpi or the ordeal of Galileo. It then turns to the poet and polemicist John Milton, a controversial figure who was closely identified with the English parliamentary struggles and civil war. The chapter reviews his works, particularly his Areopagitica: A Speech of Mr. John Milton for the Liberty of Unlicens'd Printing (1644), a pamphlet written in favor of the freedom of the press. It draws attention to one of the major themes of his Areaopagitica: his treatment throughout the work of the problem of schisms and sects.Less
This chapter first turns to the problem of writing histories, beginning with a major figure in the Catholic culture of France, Jacques Auguste de Thou, whose way of writing history brought him into conflict with his own church in terms that presaged future events such as the story of Paolo Sarpi or the ordeal of Galileo. It then turns to the poet and polemicist John Milton, a controversial figure who was closely identified with the English parliamentary struggles and civil war. The chapter reviews his works, particularly his Areopagitica: A Speech of Mr. John Milton for the Liberty of Unlicens'd Printing (1644), a pamphlet written in favor of the freedom of the press. It draws attention to one of the major themes of his Areaopagitica: his treatment throughout the work of the problem of schisms and sects.
BONNIE S. McDOUGALL
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199256792
- eISBN:
- 9780191698378
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199256792.003.0008
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, South and East Asia
This chapter provides a brief sketch of letter writing in China and Western countries, with particular attention to published letters, love-letters, and letters in literature. It was this background ...
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This chapter provides a brief sketch of letter writing in China and Western countries, with particular attention to published letters, love-letters, and letters in literature. It was this background from which Lu Xun and Xu Guangping drew for their own practice. The discussion summarizes the major characteristics of letters in pre-modern China, as well as the features associated with Western letter writing which differ from older Chinese letters. When Chinese writers and readers looked westwards in the early twentieth century, they quickly assimilated almost all of these features. Of particular relevance to the letters written and then published by Xu Guangping and Lu Xun are the porous borders between personal and open letters, between love-letters and other kinds of intimate confessions, and between authentic and imagined letters.Less
This chapter provides a brief sketch of letter writing in China and Western countries, with particular attention to published letters, love-letters, and letters in literature. It was this background from which Lu Xun and Xu Guangping drew for their own practice. The discussion summarizes the major characteristics of letters in pre-modern China, as well as the features associated with Western letter writing which differ from older Chinese letters. When Chinese writers and readers looked westwards in the early twentieth century, they quickly assimilated almost all of these features. Of particular relevance to the letters written and then published by Xu Guangping and Lu Xun are the porous borders between personal and open letters, between love-letters and other kinds of intimate confessions, and between authentic and imagined letters.
Seth Kimmel
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780226278285
- eISBN:
- 9780226278315
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226278315.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, European Early Modern History
This chapter studies the shifting conventions and goals of history writing around the turn of the seventeenth century. It argues that the first histories of the Second Alpujarras War, a Granadan ...
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This chapter studies the shifting conventions and goals of history writing around the turn of the seventeenth century. It argues that the first histories of the Second Alpujarras War, a Granadan Morisco rebellion from 1568-1571, were both stories of the conflict itself and reflections on historical method—that is, approaches to evidence, argument, narrative framing, and rhetorical technique. Unlike official histories produced at court, these accounts drew on a new range of sources, including popular testimony and Morisco prophecy, in order to criticize aspects of King Felipe II and his half brother Juan de Austria’s handling of the conflict. Composed by the soldier-scholars Diego Hurtado de Mendoza, Luis de Mármol Carvajal, and Ginés Pérez de Hita, these texts situated accounts of the Alpujarras uprising within the unrest that characterized the Morisco period as a whole. Unlike most previous participants in debate over the Moriscos, however, these scholars painted the turmoil largely in political and economic rather than religious terms. In this way, their histories marked an important shift from debate about the possibility of Morisco integration to a new conversation about the causes and costs of its failure.Less
This chapter studies the shifting conventions and goals of history writing around the turn of the seventeenth century. It argues that the first histories of the Second Alpujarras War, a Granadan Morisco rebellion from 1568-1571, were both stories of the conflict itself and reflections on historical method—that is, approaches to evidence, argument, narrative framing, and rhetorical technique. Unlike official histories produced at court, these accounts drew on a new range of sources, including popular testimony and Morisco prophecy, in order to criticize aspects of King Felipe II and his half brother Juan de Austria’s handling of the conflict. Composed by the soldier-scholars Diego Hurtado de Mendoza, Luis de Mármol Carvajal, and Ginés Pérez de Hita, these texts situated accounts of the Alpujarras uprising within the unrest that characterized the Morisco period as a whole. Unlike most previous participants in debate over the Moriscos, however, these scholars painted the turmoil largely in political and economic rather than religious terms. In this way, their histories marked an important shift from debate about the possibility of Morisco integration to a new conversation about the causes and costs of its failure.
Eve-Marie Becker
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780300165098
- eISBN:
- 9780300165371
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300165098.003.0002
- Subject:
- Religion, Biblical Studies
This chapter studies the interrelation of history-writing and literary culture. It considers the function of history-writing within the context of Hellenistic literary culture, as historiography at ...
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This chapter studies the interrelation of history-writing and literary culture. It considers the function of history-writing within the context of Hellenistic literary culture, as historiography at the time can be seen as a literary phenomenon. History-writing represents a substantial contribution to ancient literature; it circulates within the sphere of the ancient literary canon. Chronologically speaking, Mark and Luke follow in the literary tradition set by the earliest in Western history-writing, yet literary tradition among the earliest Christian authors also differs from the Greco-Roman world. Where historiographical topics and concepts vary significantly from one author to the next, in Mark and Luke, the subject of the narrative, namely, the gospel, remains surprisingly constant.Less
This chapter studies the interrelation of history-writing and literary culture. It considers the function of history-writing within the context of Hellenistic literary culture, as historiography at the time can be seen as a literary phenomenon. History-writing represents a substantial contribution to ancient literature; it circulates within the sphere of the ancient literary canon. Chronologically speaking, Mark and Luke follow in the literary tradition set by the earliest in Western history-writing, yet literary tradition among the earliest Christian authors also differs from the Greco-Roman world. Where historiographical topics and concepts vary significantly from one author to the next, in Mark and Luke, the subject of the narrative, namely, the gospel, remains surprisingly constant.
Laura Jockusch
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199764556
- eISBN:
- 9780199979578
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199764556.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History, Historiography
The conclusion examines similarities and differences among the featured commissions and documentation centers and evaluates their importance for Holocaust studies. It argues that part of the reason ...
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The conclusion examines similarities and differences among the featured commissions and documentation centers and evaluates their importance for Holocaust studies. It argues that part of the reason why the early postwar documentation initiatives did not receive the attention of historians who were not survivors themselves was that their methods at the time were anathema to the rules of academic history writing which came to dominate the study of the Holocaust. For decades, the latter remained perpetrator-focused and regime-centered, taking a “top-down” perspective on the Jewish catastrophe. By contrast, the survivors’ popular and interdisciplinary approach relied on testimony and memory and focused on writing the history of everyday life and death of European Jews under Nazi rule from the bottom up. Only in the past two decades did similar approaches enter the academic study of the Holocaust and historians begin to consider both victim and perpetrator source to write an integrated history of the Holocaust.Less
The conclusion examines similarities and differences among the featured commissions and documentation centers and evaluates their importance for Holocaust studies. It argues that part of the reason why the early postwar documentation initiatives did not receive the attention of historians who were not survivors themselves was that their methods at the time were anathema to the rules of academic history writing which came to dominate the study of the Holocaust. For decades, the latter remained perpetrator-focused and regime-centered, taking a “top-down” perspective on the Jewish catastrophe. By contrast, the survivors’ popular and interdisciplinary approach relied on testimony and memory and focused on writing the history of everyday life and death of European Jews under Nazi rule from the bottom up. Only in the past two decades did similar approaches enter the academic study of the Holocaust and historians begin to consider both victim and perpetrator source to write an integrated history of the Holocaust.
Kumkum Chatterjee
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- October 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780195698800
- eISBN:
- 9780199080243
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195698800.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, Indian History
This introductory chapter outlines the core theme of the book, which involves an exploration of the cultures of history writing in early modern Bengal. The seventeenth, eighteenth, and the first ...
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This introductory chapter outlines the core theme of the book, which involves an exploration of the cultures of history writing in early modern Bengal. The seventeenth, eighteenth, and the first decade or so of the nineteenth centuries provide the temporal framework for this study — a period which witnessed the consolidation of the Mughal political and cultural order, its subsequent political decline and the transition to early colonial rule. A related theme which runs through the book is the connection between culture and the production of history and specifically, between a Persianized Mughal political culture and history writing. The chapter then presents a critique of pre-modern Indian historiography, followed by discussions of the Mughal Empire and Persianization, and interactions between Islamicate and Indic cultures. An overview of the subsequent chapters is also presented.Less
This introductory chapter outlines the core theme of the book, which involves an exploration of the cultures of history writing in early modern Bengal. The seventeenth, eighteenth, and the first decade or so of the nineteenth centuries provide the temporal framework for this study — a period which witnessed the consolidation of the Mughal political and cultural order, its subsequent political decline and the transition to early colonial rule. A related theme which runs through the book is the connection between culture and the production of history and specifically, between a Persianized Mughal political culture and history writing. The chapter then presents a critique of pre-modern Indian historiography, followed by discussions of the Mughal Empire and Persianization, and interactions between Islamicate and Indic cultures. An overview of the subsequent chapters is also presented.
Prathama Benerjee
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- October 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780195681567
- eISBN:
- 9780199081677
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195681567.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, Indian History
This chapter tries to understand the mechanisms by which the hul becomes constituted as an event of history. It illustrates how from the very moment when the Santals rebelled, their own words were ...
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This chapter tries to understand the mechanisms by which the hul becomes constituted as an event of history. It illustrates how from the very moment when the Santals rebelled, their own words were used, against the very intention of their testimonies, as statements of ‘causes’. The central characteristic of the hul was the massive participation of non-Santals in it. Colonial juridical discourse resolved that the cause for the hul was nothing other than the inability of Santals to grasp the idea that their claim to forest land and to ‘primordial’ conditions were annulled long ago by the historical time of progress. Santals assigned their hul to inexorable time, impossible to master and predict like a rational cause. Ancestral truth was proven precisely by its extinction in the contemporary times. Bengali history-writing tried to formulate the past-present relationship as that of pure succession.Less
This chapter tries to understand the mechanisms by which the hul becomes constituted as an event of history. It illustrates how from the very moment when the Santals rebelled, their own words were used, against the very intention of their testimonies, as statements of ‘causes’. The central characteristic of the hul was the massive participation of non-Santals in it. Colonial juridical discourse resolved that the cause for the hul was nothing other than the inability of Santals to grasp the idea that their claim to forest land and to ‘primordial’ conditions were annulled long ago by the historical time of progress. Santals assigned their hul to inexorable time, impossible to master and predict like a rational cause. Ancestral truth was proven precisely by its extinction in the contemporary times. Bengali history-writing tried to formulate the past-present relationship as that of pure succession.
Rodolphe Gasché
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780823234349
- eISBN:
- 9780823241279
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823234349.003.0008
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
Beginnings and Endings dates from 1980. Parts of it were presented at a conference on Writing Literary History organized by Wlad, and again in 1981 at a conference on The Institutions of Criticism. ...
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Beginnings and Endings dates from 1980. Parts of it were presented at a conference on Writing Literary History organized by Wlad, and again in 1981 at a conference on The Institutions of Criticism. As indicated by the titles of these events, both of which were attended by many leading literary critics firmly entrenched in the opposing camps of either historical or text-oriented criticism, the taxing challenge was twofold. The proponents of historical literary criticism were asked to account for the practice of writing in the constitution of literary history, and the text-oriented critics to confront the fact that writing not only gives rise to self-referential texts, but also to discourses on literature such as literary history. Furthermore, both camps of professional critics were subtly invited to respond to what kind of institutional pressures shape the critical traditions to which they subscribe.Less
Beginnings and Endings dates from 1980. Parts of it were presented at a conference on Writing Literary History organized by Wlad, and again in 1981 at a conference on The Institutions of Criticism. As indicated by the titles of these events, both of which were attended by many leading literary critics firmly entrenched in the opposing camps of either historical or text-oriented criticism, the taxing challenge was twofold. The proponents of historical literary criticism were asked to account for the practice of writing in the constitution of literary history, and the text-oriented critics to confront the fact that writing not only gives rise to self-referential texts, but also to discourses on literature such as literary history. Furthermore, both camps of professional critics were subtly invited to respond to what kind of institutional pressures shape the critical traditions to which they subscribe.
Thomas Harrison
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199253746
- eISBN:
- 9780191719745
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199253746.003.0014
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Prose and Writers: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This chapter does not aim to not to review (still less to seek to replace) earlier treatments of the ‘origins of history’. Rather, it suggests a different — broader — approach to such a question, and ...
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This chapter does not aim to not to review (still less to seek to replace) earlier treatments of the ‘origins of history’. Rather, it suggests a different — broader — approach to such a question, and to offer another, complementary answer. In particular, the hypothesis will be advanced that the origins of history writing were (to a significant degree) theological. It argues that Herodotus' beliefs, convictions, and attitudes concerning the divine — far from consisting in a series of isolated and discrete passages — inform his Histories much more broadly. Herodotus' principles of selection, his organisation of his narrative, his presentation of causation, and finally (what we might term) his ‘aims and objectives’: all these can be seen to be underpinned by theological assumptions.Less
This chapter does not aim to not to review (still less to seek to replace) earlier treatments of the ‘origins of history’. Rather, it suggests a different — broader — approach to such a question, and to offer another, complementary answer. In particular, the hypothesis will be advanced that the origins of history writing were (to a significant degree) theological. It argues that Herodotus' beliefs, convictions, and attitudes concerning the divine — far from consisting in a series of isolated and discrete passages — inform his Histories much more broadly. Herodotus' principles of selection, his organisation of his narrative, his presentation of causation, and finally (what we might term) his ‘aims and objectives’: all these can be seen to be underpinned by theological assumptions.
Roger Cooter and Claudia Stein
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- October 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780300186635
- eISBN:
- 9780300189438
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300186635.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, Historiography
This introductory chapter discusses the theme of this volume, which is about history writing in the age of biomedicine. The volume presents an analysis about the history of medicine. It suggests a ...
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This introductory chapter discusses the theme of this volume, which is about history writing in the age of biomedicine. The volume presents an analysis about the history of medicine. It suggests a history writing that stretches to epistemic levels and discusses the importance of understanding the unspoken sensitivities or below-the-radar values and ideals of the present through which history writing is articulated.Less
This introductory chapter discusses the theme of this volume, which is about history writing in the age of biomedicine. The volume presents an analysis about the history of medicine. It suggests a history writing that stretches to epistemic levels and discusses the importance of understanding the unspoken sensitivities or below-the-radar values and ideals of the present through which history writing is articulated.
