Studying history

255 Pages·2000·0.892 MB·English

by  Jeremy Black, Donald M MacRaild

STUDYING HISTORY
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STUDYING HISTORY
Second Edition
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HOW TO STUDY
Series editors: John Peck and Martin Coyle
Titles in the same series
How to Begin Studying English Literature (second edition)
Nicholas Marsh
How to Study a Jane Austen Novel (second edition) Vivien Jones
How to Study Chaucer (second edition) Robert Pope
How to Study a Joseph Conrad Novel Brian Spittles
How to Study a Charles Dickens Novel Keith Selby
How to Study an E. M. Forster Novel Nigel Messenger
How to Study a Thomas Hardy Novel John Preck
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How to Study a D. H. Lawrence Novel Nigel Messenger
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How to Study James Joyce John Blades e
How to Study Linguistics Geoffrey Finchx
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How to Study Milton David Kearns
How to Study Modern Drama Kenne th Pickering
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How to Study Modern Poetry Tonyo Curtis
How to Study a Novel (second ediyt ion) John Peck
How to Study a Poet (second edittion) John Peck
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How to Study a Renaissance Plsay Chris Coles
How to Study Romantic Poetrry (second edition) Paul O’Flinn
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How to Study a Shakespeare Play (second edition) John Peck and
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Martin Coyle i
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How to Study Television Keith Selby and Ron Cowdery
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Linguistic Terms and Concepts Geoffrey Finch
Literary Terms and Cr iticism (second edition) John Peck and
Martin Coyle
Practical Criticism John Peck and Martin Coyle
Studying History (second edition) Jeremy Black and Donald D.
MacRaild
How to Study Foreign Languages Marilyn Lewis
STUDYING
HISTORY
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Jeremy BlacEk and

Donald D. MfacRaild
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© Jeremy Black and Donald M. MacRaild 1997, 2000
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be
made without written permission.
No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with
written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs
and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying
issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1P
OLP.
Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation tor this publication may be
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liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
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The authors have asserted their rights to be identifixed as the authors of this work in
accordance with the Copyright, Designs and PateEnts Act 1988.

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First published 2000 by o
MACMILLAN PRESS LTD

Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RGy21 6XS
and London t
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Companies and representatives throughout the world
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ISBN 0–333–80183–0 paperback
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A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
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This book is printed on pa per suitable for recycling and
made from fully managed and sustained forest sources.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 00
Printed in Hong Kong
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Still for Bill Purdue
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C
ONTENTS
General Editors’ Preface xi
Authors’ Preface xiii
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PART I e
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1 The Scope of History 3
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1.1 Introduction 3
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1.2 The uses of history 5
1.3 History and the national mf yth 7
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1.4 Competing histories 9

1.5 History and ideology y 10
1.6 Ideology and the histotrians 12
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1.7 Ideology and sourcess 13
1.8 History and time r 14
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1.9 The relativity of time and change 16
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1.10 History as ‘probilems’ 19
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1.11 The problem of description and analysis 20
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1.12 The problem of controversy and debate 21
1.13 Conclusion s 23
2 Varieties of History (i): ‘Traditional History’ 25
2.1 Introduction 25
2.2 Early history 27
2.3 Beyond Europe 29
2.4 The Enlightenment and history 30
2.5 The eighteenth-century British tradition 33
2.6 The Whig tradition 34
2.7 The French Revolution 35
2.8 ‘History for below’ 36
2.9 Connecting the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries 38
2.10 The age of Ranke 40
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viii CONTENTS
2.11 Non-European empirical traditions 42
2.12 Positivism 43
2.13 The Victorian tradition: Macaulay to Acton 43
2.14 Continental innovations 46
2.15 The New World 48
2.16 Conclusions 50
3 Varieties of History (ii): ‘The New History’ 52
3.1 Introduction 52
3.2 The historical antecedents of social and economic
history 54
3.3 Social history: Green and Trevelyan 55
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3.4 A tide of reaction? The emergence of modern
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social and economic history t 57
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3.5 The influence of the Industrial Revolution 58
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3.6 J. H. Clapham 60
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3.7 Lewis Namier and R. H. Tawney 61

3.8 Russia and the USSR f 64
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3.9 A continental revolution? The early Annales

School in France y 66
3.10 Developments after thte Second World War 70
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3.11 Communist perspectsives 71
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3.12 India 73
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3.13 France and the pvost-war Annales School 73
3.14 The 1960s: ‘Reial’ new directions in history? 75
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3.15 Later Annales and ‘New Economic History’ 77
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3.16 Cultural history 79

3.17 A diffusion of ideas? History to the present day 79
3.18 Conclusions 83
PART II
4 Approaches to History: Sources, Methods and
Historians 87
4.1 Introduction 87
4.2 Historians and sources 89
4.3 Local history 92
4.4 Traditional history 95
4.5 Comparative history 104
4.6 ‘History from below’ 109
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CONTENTS ix
4.7 Cultural history, or the history of mentalities 114
4.8 Quantitative history 119
4.9 Counterfactual or ‘what if?’ history 124
4.10 Conclusions 127
5 Theories and Concepts 129
5.1 Introduction 129
5.2 History and sociology 130
5.3 The historical process 134
5.4 Marxism 135
5.5 Class, structure and agency 140
5.6 Gender 145
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5.7 Community and identity 149
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5.8 Ethnicity 153
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5.9 Ideology and mentality 157
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5.10 History and the challenge of post-modernism 161
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5.11 Conclusions 167

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PART III
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6 Studying History s 171
6.1 Introduction r 171
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6.2 Reading 172
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6.3 Note-taking 173
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6.4 The kinds of wnorks you read 175
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6.5 Effective reading 177
6.6 The structu re of reading history 180
6.7 Using the sources you read 182
6.8 Conclusions 188
7 Writing History (i): the Essay 189
7.1 Introduction 189
7.2 Writing: some general points 190
7.3 Writing an essay 194
7.4 Statement and evidence 200
7.5 Conclusions 203
8 Writing History (ii): the Dissertation 205
8.1 Introduction 205
8.2 Choosing a topic and preliminary work 206