We are first taken on a tour of what the (European) study of history was thought to mean through time: it is no longer considered “scientific” by most – although Evans is quick to reassure us that it is just different and not worse. How has the study of history changed over time? Carr’s masterpiece What is History (also reviewed on this site).Īnd Carr is very much in Evans’ mind with the structure, arguments and conclusion of In Defence of History paying homage to What is History? For example his chapter headings are similar and his concluding paragraph is a homage to the concluding paragraph in Carr’s book.īut while Carr provides the bones of the story, the post-modernists provide the meat – they are the ones who Evans really wants to get his teeth into. Not new but still currentĮvans’ book while not new, is perhaps the next significant stepping-stone in the popular understanding of what the current study of history is all about, after E.H. You can see how this would make the study of history tricky to justify.īut would anyone really go so far as to make this claim? If you are a post-modernist please do drop me a line and let me know. This is because there is no objective standard against which to assess the competing narratives. The most extreme positions in post-modernist thought, we are told, deny the fundamental reality of the past, and argue that all that matters is the interpretation in the present – with every interpretation being equally valid. The post-modernist assault on history seems to be what made Evans circle the faculty wagons, corral the college horses – and write this book. Evans, author of the 1997 classic of historiography “In Defence of History” sees this tribe as the key protagonists in the cut and thrust of historiographical debate. The reason that I am so interested to make this acquaintance is that Richard J. If you are one or can introduce one get in touch. Perhaps I have been going to the wrong parties – back in the days when I went to parties.
I have never knowingly met a post-modernist.
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