samratbasani's review against another edition
5.0
High bar for the other very short introductions now. Short, persuasive, and powerful.
tombomp's review against another edition
4.0
A good and well written introduction to what history means, how it's used, how it's done. You could always argue for X thing to be included but I think he covers most things you could expect to. Most chapters he focuses on a particular event from history and uses it to discuss a different aspect of how we understand history, how historical analysis is done, the struggle of approaching something like "the truth". Each of these events are interesting in themselves - an early 1300s murder to avoid someone exposing "heretics" to the inquisition, the story of a puritan preacher who went from England to America and back again and the family he left behind...
Often the book focuses more on asking questions than giving answers, but that's kind of the point - it's great for questioning the assumptions people might come into history with and pointing out how difficult it is to provide a definite understanding of the past.
Often the book focuses more on asking questions than giving answers, but that's kind of the point - it's great for questioning the assumptions people might come into history with and pointing out how difficult it is to provide a definite understanding of the past.
lokster71's review against another edition
3.0
I don't have much to say about this book. It does exactly what it says in its title. It introduces you - briefly - to history as a subject, an object and a profession.
It talks about the development of history from Ancient Greece through to the 19th century and then on to the present. It talks about how the subject has broadened out - escaped from Thucydides Tower (as Arnold puts it) - from 'great men' with the influence of economics, anthropology and semiotics. There's a small, but useful section on the Annales school, which was less influential in the UK/US than in continental Europe.
There is talk of sources - their value and their uses and abuses. He covers how historians perceive people from the past - are they think like us or are they different? Finally, he talks about 'truth', which leads us to a discussion of the recovery of voices that were previously silenced by history as a subject and how the truth historians find will never be Truth with a capital T, but a truth. One of many truths, although he does a good job in a short space of time flagging up that this should not allow us to deny historical events like the Holocaust.
Arnold also provides a fine reading list, which allows you to pursue any of the themes you have found most interesting, which I always like. Even if my bank account doesn't.
It talks about the development of history from Ancient Greece through to the 19th century and then on to the present. It talks about how the subject has broadened out - escaped from Thucydides Tower (as Arnold puts it) - from 'great men' with the influence of economics, anthropology and semiotics. There's a small, but useful section on the Annales school, which was less influential in the UK/US than in continental Europe.
There is talk of sources - their value and their uses and abuses. He covers how historians perceive people from the past - are they think like us or are they different? Finally, he talks about 'truth', which leads us to a discussion of the recovery of voices that were previously silenced by history as a subject and how the truth historians find will never be Truth with a capital T, but a truth. One of many truths, although he does a good job in a short space of time flagging up that this should not allow us to deny historical events like the Holocaust.
Arnold also provides a fine reading list, which allows you to pursue any of the themes you have found most interesting, which I always like. Even if my bank account doesn't.
techwoo's review against another edition
4.0
Very well written and amusingly read (by Richard Davidson). Made me think. I liked it a lot.
serenade's review against another edition
medium-paced
3.75
Read this for a class, so I'm predisposed to dislike it, but it was surprisingly not too bad of a read. As the title posits, an introduction to history (and a bit of historiography). Half of the book traces the history of writing history and how the focus or purpose of writing history has changed across time periods, balancing truth-telling and story-telling. The latter half tackles the selection and usage of sources, approaches to (lenses to look at) history. Argument-wise, the book is rather all over the place (and fleshed out with lots of unrelated historical accounts that don’t quite illustrate the points he make), but for an introduction it's rather all right.
little_lettie's review against another edition
4.0
This book does a good job at what it sets out to do; lay out the basic foundation of historiography. Arnold has many useful insights into how the field works, and the narrative is keep engaging (read, “not boring”).
The complete lack of any mention to historiographical methods (or almost any history at all) outside of the “Western Tradition” is excusable, but still unfortunate. I understand that the purpose is to bridge the gap between the scholar and the average person, but perhaps here brevity has been the enemy of completeness.
All-in-all, it gives you what you need from it. Worth your time.
The complete lack of any mention to historiographical methods (or almost any history at all) outside of the “Western Tradition” is excusable, but still unfortunate. I understand that the purpose is to bridge the gap between the scholar and the average person, but perhaps here brevity has been the enemy of completeness.
All-in-all, it gives you what you need from it. Worth your time.