History as Re-enactment: R. G. Collingwood*s Idea of History

This book explains and defends a central ideas in the theory of history put forward by R. G. Collingwood, perhaps the foremost philosopher of history in the 20th century. Professor Dray analyses critically the idea of re-enactment, explores the limits of its applicability, and determines its relationship to other key Collingwoodian ideas, such as the role of imagination in historical thinking, and the indispensability of a point of view.

William H. Dray has been Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the University of Ottawa, Canada.