A New Philosophy Of History

From Thucydides to Toynbee, historians and non-historians alike have wondered how to answer the question, What is history'. The essays in this book reflect on developments over the last two decades in historical writing, not least the renewed interest in the status of narrative itself and the presence of the authorial voice. Subjects include the problems of grand narrative, multiple voices and the personal presence of the historian in his text, the ambitions of the French Annales school and the so-called Grand Chronicler, and the relevance of non-literary models - museum presentations and picturings - regarding historical discourse.