History, Historians, and the Dynamics of Change

by William A. Green

Overview

Green offers a remarkably lucid, erudite, and insightful description and analysis of the theoretical foundations of modern historical writing. He is the first to provide an orderly introduction to the several systematic models by which leading modern historians have attempted to explain continuity and change. This cogent survey is essential to an understanding of modern Western historiography.

The book introduces history as a theoretical discipline. Green examines the many pitfalls of historical writing and demonstrates that historical truth is a most elusive quarry. He addresses periodization, the manner in which past time is divided, showing how prevailing modes of periodization have evolved in the West. Part two of the book is concerned with the dynamics of change in European history. Each chapter considers a specific theoretical orientation, including: the commercial model initiated by Adam Smith and pursued by Henri Pirenne and others, the demographic model first formulated by Malthus, the Marxian model (or models), and the approaches of Weber and Sombart who identified religious forces as the chief engines of historical change. Part three addresses models of change being employed in world history, particularly the world-system approach of Frank and Wallerstein and the creative orientations of environmental historians. In his conclusion, Green returbans to the question of whether the theoretical models of change currently in use among historians are consistent with contemporary modes of periodization. The bibliography is extensive.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780275939021
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	02/28/1993
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.57(d)
Lexile:	1390L (what's this?)

About the Author

WILLIAM A. GREEN is Professor of History at Holy Cross College. He is author of British Slave Emancipation: The Sugar Colonies and the Great Experiment, 1830-1865 (1976). He has contributed to six books in European and imperial history and has written many articles for professional jourbanals, including Comparative Studies in Society and History, The Economic History Review, The Jourbanal of British Studies, Victorian Studies, Albion, The Jourbanal of African History, The Jourbanal of Interdisciplinary History, and The Jourbanal of World History.

Table of Contents

History and the Historian
History: The Elusive Quarry
The Framework of History
The Dyamics of Historical Change: Europe
Introduction: Search for a Governing Dynamic
The Commercial Model
The Demographic Model
The Marxian Dynamic
Weber, Sombart, and the Spirit of Capitalism
The Dynamics of Historical Change: World History
Introduction: The Global Perspective
World-System Analysis
Environmental History
Summation: The Continuing Pursuit of Order
Bibliography