The Routledge Companion to Historical Studies

Book excerpt: The Routledge Companion to Historical Studies provides a much-needed critical introduction to the major historians and philosophers together with the central issues, ideas and theories which have prompted the rethinking of history that has gathered pace since the 1990s. With twenty-nine new entries, and many that have been substantially updated, key concepts for the new history are examined through the ideas of leading thinkers such as Kant, Nietzsche, Croce, Collingwood, White, Foucault and Derrida, and subjects range over class, empiricism, hermeneutics, inference, relativism and technology. New entries for the second edition include: Carl Becker Frank R. Ankersmit Jean-Francois Lyotard gender justified belief the aesthetic turn race film biography cultural history critical theory and experimental history. With a revised introduction setting out the state of the discipline of history today, as well as an extended and updated bibliography, this is the essential reference work for all students of history.