Methodology of History

No discipline has been more praised or more criticized than the writing of history. Cioero claimed that history teaches men how to live. Aris­ totle denied it the very name of science and regwded poetry as the higher wisdom. At various times history has been assigned a command­ ing or a demeaning statIUs in the hierarchy of sciences. Today one can admire the increasing precision and sophistication of the methods used by historia:ns. On the other hand, Thucydides' History of the PeZo­ ponesi...