Hughes-Warringt “Fifty Key Thinkers on History, 2nd edition "
Routledge | 2007-12-14 | ISBN: 0415366518 | PDF | 442 pages | 2,4 Mb
Fifty Key Thinkers on History is a superb guide to historiography through the ages. The cross-section of debates and thinkers covered is unique in its breadth, taking in figures from ancient China, Greece and Rome, through the Middle Ages, to contemporary Europe, America, Africa and Australia; from Bede to Braudel; Marx to Michelet; Ranke to Rowbotham; Foucault to Fukuyama. Each clear and concise essay offers biographical information, a summary and discussion of the subjects approach to history and how others have engaged with it, a list of their major works and a guide to diverse resources for further study, including books, articles, films and websites.
As with other works in Routledge’s Fifty Key series, each entry includes a short essay outlining biographical information and the key ideas of the thinker in focus. Each essay, I hope, will give you a taste of the thinker’s interests and approach to the past and how others (myself included) have engaged with it. That I say ‘taste’ accords with my belief that this book offers points of departure, not points of arrival. Having read what I have to say, I hope that you will explore
discussions on and by these thinkers in more depth for yourself. I have included details of each writer’s major works and further resources. I call the latter further ‘resources’ rather than ‘reading’ because they include audiovisual as well as printed materials.
These reflections, and my selection, are unlikely to satisfy either diehard defenders or bitter critics of canons, and I expect that people will ask me, ‘Why didn’t you include so-and-so?’ for the rest of my life. If this work encourages more people to engage with historiography, however, then it will have been worth it.
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