A new edition of this best-selling collection of essays by leading experts on historical methodology. Since its first publication in 1992; New Perspectives on Historical Writing has become a key reference work used by students and researchers interested in the most important developments in the methodology and practice of history. For this new edition; the book has been thoroughly revised and updated and includes an entirely new chapter on environmental history.Peter Burke is joined here by a distinguished group of internationally renowned historians; including Robert Darnton; Ivan Gaskell; Richard Grove; Giovanni Levi; Roy Porter; Gwyn Prins; Joan Scott; Jim Sharpe; Richard Tuck; and Henk Wesseling. The contributions examine a wide range of interdisciplinary areas of historical research; including women's history; history "from below;" the history of reading; oral history; the history of the body; microhistory; the history of events; the history of images; and political history.
#1355441 in Books 2015-11-11Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 9.00 x 1.00 x 6.00l; 1.35 #File Name: 0268035377456 pages
Review
6 of 9 people found the following review helpful. Focus on Lonergan; rather than AuthenticityBy Richard W. MoodeyThe title is a bit misleading; because McCarthy's focus is not primarily on authenticity. "My purpose;" he writes (p. vii); "is not to gain belated recognition for the dead; but to exhibit the power and vitality of Lonergan's thought for the living." But a few pages later; he does seem to seek"belated recognition for the dead" by saying: "My governing purpose in writing this book is to show that these discoveries are so basic in nature; so fertile in their implications; and so relevant to our cultural crises that they establish Bernard Lonergan as one of the truly great minds of the twentieth century" (p. xi).I came to McCarthy's book already convinced that Lonergan was one of the great thinkers of the twentieth century. I have no quarrels with his exposition of Lonergan's thought; or with his explanations of the relations between Lonergan's philosophy and many of our current cultural crises. The book is an excellent introduction to Lonergan.I give the book four stars rather than five for two reasons.The first is that McCarthy does not develop the notion of authenticity beyond what Lonergan himself had said. This disappointed me; because I am not satisfied with what Lonergan said about the "minor authenticity" of persons and the "major authenticity" of the traditions to which persons adhere. The second is that McCarthy is insufficiently critical of Lonergan's notion of culture. Again; this is one of the aspects of Lonergan's thought with which I am not satisfied.I was also disappointed in McCarthy's failure to come to grips with the extended treatment of authenticity provided by Walter Conn inConscience--development and self-transcendence. Back in 1981; Conn wrote: "in this study the meaning of 'self-transcendence;' though not univocal; is quite direct and concrete: it refers primarily to the threefold achievement of 'moving beyond one's own self' that is effected in every instance of correct understanding (cognitive); responsible decision (moral); and genuine love (affective). Each of these aspects will be examined in detail when we consider the developmental theories of Erikson; Piaget; and Kohlberg; and then the transcendental analysis of Lonergan" (p. 6).
