A Concise History of History

This short history of history is an ideal introduction for those studying or teaching the subject as part of courses on the historian's craft, historical theory and method, and historiography. Spanning the earliest known forms of historical writing in the ancient Near East right through to the present and covering developments in Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas, it also touches on the latest topics and debates in the field, such as 'Big History', 'Deep History' and the impact of the electronic age. It features timelines listing major dynasties or regimes throughout the world alongside historiographical developments; guides to key thinkers and seminal historical works; further reading; a glossary of terms; and sample questions to promote further debate at the end of each chapter. This is a truly global account of the process of progressive intercultural contact that led to the hegemony of Western historiographical methods.

Daniel Woolf is Professor of History at Queen's University, Ontario. He is the author of several books, including A Global History of History (Cambridge, 2011), the award-winning The Social Circulation of the Past (2003), Reading History in Early Modern England (Cambridge, 2001), and The Idea of History in Early Stuart England (1991). He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, of the Society of Antiquaries of London, and the Royal Society of Canada.