Artful History: A Practical Anthology

Artful History: A Practical Anthology
ISBN-10
0300252048
ISBN-13
9780300252040
Category
History
Pages
320
Language
English
Published
2020-02-18
Publisher
Yale University Press
Authors
Aaron Sachs, John Demos

Description

A collection of memorable, stirring, and eloquent historical essays, designed to help any historian write more artfully Is there any reason that serious historical scholarship cannot receive literary expression? Isn’t it possible that the most committed empiricists and postmodernists might both achieve better results by thinking of writing as a craft, rather than just a means of packaging research? This book compiles some of the most compelling efforts to make history writing eloquent, stirring, and memorable, in the realms of both practice and theory. The authors included here prove the great potential of approaching the writing of history as a literary art, even as they retain a commitment to rigorous scholarship. The collection shows how historians can aspire to find a form that matches and enhances their substance, nudging readers toward what historian John Clive called the “spell that lingers in the memory and is conducive not just to reading but to rereading.” With selections from: Jonathan Spence, Simon Schama, Saidiya Hartman, Wendy Warren, Jill Lepore, Louis Masur, Jane Kamensky, and John Demos, among others.

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