History, Theory, Text : : Historians and the Linguistic Turn / / Elizabeth A. Clark.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter HUP eBook Package Archive 1893-1999
• VerfasserIn: Clark, Elizabeth A.,
• Place / Publishing House: Cambridge, MA : : Harvard University Press, , [2004]; ©2004
• Year of Publication: 2004
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (336 p.)

In this work of sweeping erudition, one of our foremost historians of early Christianity considers a variety of theoretical critiques to examine the problems and opportunities posed by the ways in which history is written. Elizabeth Clark argues forcefully for a renewal of the study of premodern Western history through engagement with the kinds of critical methods that have transformed other humanities disciplines in recent decades. History, Theory, Text provides a user-friendly survey of crucial developments in nineteenth- and twentieth-century debates surrounding history, philosophy, and critical theory. Beginning with the "noble dream" of "history as it really was" in the works of Leopold von Ranke, Clark goes on to review Anglo-American philosophies of history, schools of twentieth-century historiography, structuralism, the debate over narrative history, the changing fate of the history of ideas, and the impact of interpretive anthropology and literary theory on current historical scholarship. In a concluding chapter she offers some practical case studies to illustrate how attending to theoretical considerations can illuminate the study of premodernity. Written with energy and clarity, History, Theory, Text is a clarion call to historians for richer and more imaginative use of contemporary theory.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Acknowledgments -- Contents -- Preface -- Introduction: An Overview -- CHAPTER ONE Defending and Lamenting History -- CHAPTER TWO Anglo-American Philosophy and the Historians -- CHAPTER THREE Language and Structures -- CHAPTER FOUR The Territory of the Historian -- CHAPTER FIVE Narrative and History -- CHAPTER SIX The New Intellectual History -- CHAPTER SEVEN Texts and Contexts -- CHAPTER EIGHT History, Theory, and Premodern Texts -- Abbreviations and Frequently Cited Books -- Notes -- Index