Why Bother with History?: Ancient, Modern and Postmodern MotivationsNo longer is it 'History for it's own sake'. Challenges conventions of modern history. Provides examples from antiquity to present. Emphasizes the future moral role for history. "Why Bother With History?" argues for an increasingly important role for a revitalized historical study. Examining the motivations of past historians, the author rejects the ancient aspiration to a 'history for its own sake' and argues that historians' importance lies in their own adoption of a moral standpoint, from which a story of the past can be told, that facilitates the attainment of a future we desire. "Why Bother With History?" challenges the conventions of modern history and will prompt and discussions of contemporary concerns while emphasizing the future moral role for history. Inevitably controversial, in that it challenges many of the assumptions of modernist history, Beverly Southgate draws in on psychology and literature, as well as history, in stating her case. |
