What Is History?

by Edward Hallett Carr

Book Overview

Who is to say how things really were? In formulating a modern answer to the question 'What is History?' Professor Carr shows that the 'facts' of history are simply those which historians have selected for scrutiny. Millions have crossed the Rubicon, but the historians tell us that only Caesar's crossing was significant. All historical facts come to us as a result of interpretative choices by historians influenced by the standards of their age. Yet...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 039470391X
• ISBN13: 9780394703916
• Release Date: October 1967
• Publisher: Vintage
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.39 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 4.3" x 7.3"

Customer Reviews

Quirky, excellent volume

What is History is necessarily dated - historiography does move on, seminal historical issues (the terror of the Soviet Union) have evolved and changed dramatically since the time of writing. The book is also completely biased in Carr's own skewed humanist liberal image of progress through reform, and the subjetive nature of the historian's viewpoint. None of this spoils one jot an excellent volume (though the preface material adds little, as another reviewer has noted). It is packed with vignettes, riffs and intellectual trinkets, carefully outlying a consideration of what is history - how does causation work? Does history progress? How does the individual fit into society? There is plenty to cherish in this slim volume, many intellectual reference points, and the odd passage that will raise an odd eyebrow or two - for examole Carr's contention in the final chapter that progress only comes about by radical reform of society through reason, implying that those in the conservative, pragmatic school have offered little to nothing towards human progress. Well worth reading for anyone involved in the practice or teaching of history, or about to become involved, at whatever level.

A good place to start

Carr explores many crucial questions in the study of history including subjectivity, point of view, and the limitations sources pose in the construction of the past itself. It's clearly written, concise, and plain-spoken, even as those reading it may be preparing to pursue history into the non-concise, un-plainly spoken world of academia. "The serious historian is the one who recognizes the historically conditioned character of all values, not the one who claims for his own values an objectivity beyond history." Highly recommend.

Fundamental considerations!

Edward Hallet Carr makes a meticulous analysis and untired exploration around the meaning of the historian and his real role as interpreter . He must consider the story as a musician playing the score becoming in a kind of vanished bridge linking the history and the reader . The subjectivity is very hazardous , but the historian can not just be isolated from the emotion . This delicate balance between the reason and the passion is highlighted with interesting points of view of brilliant authors in this theme . Absorbing and fundamental reading.

The fundamental historiographical work.

Although this book is difficult to understand in places (purely by virtue of it being an academic text that has obtained deserved popularity) it is a must for anybody interested in history as a discipline. Debates in historiography have moved on a great deal since Carr wrote this text, and the advent of post-modernism has complicated many of the issues that Carr raises. However, before trying to run, one should walk, and Carr provides the basic skills needed to become a good historian. I would recommend Richard Evans 'In Defence of History' for a modern perspective.