That Noble Dream - The ''Objectivity Question'' and the American Historical Profession

The aspiration to relate the past' as it really happened' has been the central goal of American professional historians since the late nineteenth century. In this remarkable history of the profession, Novick shows how the idea and ideal of objectivity were elaborated, challenged, modified, and defended over the last century.

List of contents

Preface; Introduction: nailing jelly to the wall; Part I. Objectivity Enthroned: 1. The European legacy: Ranke, Bacon, Flaubert; 2. The professionalization project; 3. Consensus and legitimation; 4. A most genteel insurgency; Part II. Objectivity Besieged: 5. Historians on the home front; 6. A changed climate; 7. Professionalism stalled; 8. Divergence and dissent; 9. The battle joined; Part III. Objectivity Reconstructed: 10. The defense of the West; 11. A convergent culture; 12. An autonomous profession; Part IV. Objectivity in Crisis: 13. The collapse of comity; 14. Every group its own historian; 15. The center does not hold; 16. There was no king in Israel; Appendix: manuscript collections cited; Index.

Summary

In this remarkable history of the profession, Peter Novick shows how the idea and ideal of objectivity were elaborated, challenged, modified, and defended over the last century.

Product details

• Authors: Peter Novick
• Assisted by: Quentin Skinner (Editor), James Tully (Editor)
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press ELT
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 30.09.1988
• EAN: 9780521357456
• ISBN: 978-0-521-35745-6
• No. of pages: 662
• Series: Ideas in Context; Ideas in Context
• Subjects: Non-fiction book > Politics, society, business > Politics; Social sciences, law, business > Sociology > General, dictionaries