The landscape of history: how historians map the past PDF
Preview The landscape of history: how historians map the past
THE LANDSCAPE OF HISTORY also by john lewis gaddis The United States and the Origins of the Cold War, 1941–1947 Russia, the Soviet Union, and the United States: An Interpretive History Strategies of Containment: A Critical Appraisal of Postwar American National Security Policy The Long Peace: Inquiries into the History of the Cold War The United States and the End of the Cold War: Implications, Reconsiderations, Provocations We Now Know: Rethinking Cold War History THE LAN DSCAPE OF HISTORY How Historians Map the Past JOHN LEWIS GADDIS 1 2002 1 Oxford New York Auckland Bangkok Buenos Aires Cape Town Chennai Dar es Salaam Delhi Hong Kong Istanbul Karachi Kolkata Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Mumbai Nairobi São Paulo Shanghai Singapore Taipei Tokyo Toronto Copyright © 2002by John Lewis Gaddis Published by Oxford University Press, Inc. 198Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016 www.oup.com Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Oxford University Press. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Gaddis, John Lewis. The landscape of history : how historians map the past / John Lewis Gaddis. p. cm. Includes index. isbn0-19-506652-9 1. History—Philosophy. 2. History—Methodology. 3. Aesthetics—History. I. Title. d16.8 .g23 2002 901—dc21 2002010392 Book design and composition by Mark McGarry, Texas Type & Book Works. Set in Linotype Fairfield. 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper For Toni The Love of Life and a Life of Love CONTENTS Preface ix one The Landscape of History 1 two Time and Space 17 three Structure and Process 35 four The Interdependency of Variables 53 five Chaos and Complexity 71 six Causation, Contingency, and Counterfactuals 91 seven Molecules with Minds of Their Own 111 eight Seeing Like a Historian 129 Notes 153 Index 183 PREFACE The University of Oxford has again provided a hospitable set- ting in which to write a book. The occasion this time was the 2000/1 George Eastman Visiting Professorship in Balliol College, a chair dat- ing back to 1929 whose occupants have included Felix Frankfurter, Linus Pauling, Willard Quine, George F. Kennan, Lionel Trilling, Clif- ford Geertz, William H. McNeill, Natalie Zemon Davis, and Robin Winks. As befits a position with such diverse and distinguished prede- cessors, the Eastman electors do not find it necessary to provide cur- rent chairholders with detailed instructions as to what they are expected to do. My own letter of appointment specified only “partici- pation in twenty-four academic functions during the three terms of the academic year.” It then added, accurately enough as I discovered, “that the Eastman Professor enjoys considerable scope for flexibility in adjusting the pedagogical activities in combination with scholarly proj- ects which the holder may wish to pursue.” Confronted with so much latitude in so congenial a setting, I was at first at a loss to know how to use my time. One possibility, I sup- pose, would have been simply to dine: high table at Oxford is defi- nitely an “academic function.” Another would have been to spend the
The list of books you might like
