On the Future of History: The Postmodernist Challenge and Its Aftermath - Hardcover

Breisach, Ernst

4.14

7 ratings by Goodreads

9780226072791: On the Future of History: The Postmodernist Challenge and Its Aftermath

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0226072797 ISBN 13: 9780226072791

Publisher: University of Chicago Press, 2003

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What does postmodernism mean for the future of history? Can one still write history in postmodernity? To answer questions such as these, Ernst Breisach provides the first comprehensive overview of postmodernism and its complex relationship to history and historiography. Placing postmodern theories in their intellectual and historical contexts, he shows how they are part of broad developments in Western culture.

Breisach sees postmodernism as neither just a fad nor a universal remedy. In clear and concise language, he presents and critically evaluates the major views on history held by influential postmodernists, such as Derrida, Foucault, Lyotard, and the new narrativists. Along the way, he introduces to the reader major debates among historians over postmodern theories of evidence, objectivity, meaning and order, truth, and the usefulness of history. He also discusses new types of history that have emerged as a consequence of postmodernism, including cultural history, microhistory, and new historicism.

For anyone concerned with the postmodern challenge to history, both advocates and critics alike, On the Future of History will be a welcome guide.

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About the Author:

Ernst A. Breisach is a Professor of History Emeritus at Western Michigan University. He is the author of Historiography: Ancient, Medieval, Modern, second edition, and American Progressive History: An Experiment in Modernization, both published by the University of Chicago Press.

Review:

"On the Future of History is an intelligent and extremely interesting book. . . . Breisach recognises that what the poststructuralists sought to challenge was not history in the academic sense; and that the rejection of academic history's truth claims are but one battle in the epistemological war . . . steeped as he is in the historical intersections between intellectual endeavour and political praxis, Breisach shows that these wider thoughts about the past and the future have a key bearing on the present. . . .On the Future of History is written clearly and often elegantly. . . . For those who have done some reading in the area, it provides a magnificently lucid guide to the currents of thought. Admirably, there is absolutely no sound of grinding axes nor of the ill-informed pontificating adopted by other historians who have attempted to defend history from its apparent foes. One is treated to a diligent reading of the works discussed, placed in a wider intellectual landscape. It is a demanding read, but for the right reason." (John Arnold Times Higher Education Supplement)

"Breisach provides both a guide to the arguments about history and postmodernism and an optimistic view of history's future, which can be recommended to students of the nature of historical knowledge."

(Christopher Parker Literature & History)

“This small volume deals with an ambitious subject: the challenge of postmodernist theories to the study of history. . . . An intelligent guide to the future of historical study.”--Choice (Choice)

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