Historiography: Ancient, Medieval, and Modern

495 Pages·027.14 MB·English

by  Ernst Breisach

·HISTORIOGR.APHY·

H·I·S·T·Q·R·I·Q·G·R·A·P·H·Y
Ancient, Medieval,
&
Modern
·ERNST BREISACH·
Second Editic~n
THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICi\GO PRESS
Chicago & London
The University ofChicago Press, Chicago 60637
The University ofChicago Press, Ltd., London
© 1983, 1994 by The University ofChicago
All rights reserved. First edition published 1983
Second edition published 1994
ISBN: 0-226-07278-9
Printed in the United States ofAmerica
07 06 05 04 03 02 01 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Library ofCongress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Breisach, Ernst.
Historiography: ancient, medieval & modern / Ernst Breisach.
2nd ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Historiography. I. Title.
013.B686 1994 94-12821
907'.2-dc20 CIP
>€ The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirementsofthe American
National Standard for Information Sciences-Permanence of Paper for Printed Library
Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984.
Ad Hermam
uxorem etsociam

·CONTEN~rs·
Preface xi
Introduction
·1·
The Emergence ofGreek Historiography 5
The Timeless Past ofGods and Heroes 5
DiscoveringaPast ofHuman Dimensions 8
·2·
The Era ofthePolis and Its Historians 12
The New History ofthePolis 12
The Decline ofthePolis: The Loss ofFocus 21
·3·
Reaching the Limits ofGreek I-listoriography 27
The History ofaSpecial Decade 27
Hellenistic Historiography: Beyond the Confines ofthePolis 30
The Problem ofNew Regions and People 34
·4·
Early Roman Historiography
Myths, Greeks, and the R~epublic 40
An Early Past Dimly Perceived 40
The Roman Pastand Greek Learning 43
Greco-Roman History Writing: Triumph and a Latin Response 45
·5·
Historians and the RepubLic's Crisis 52
History as Inspiration and Structural Analysis 52
History Divorced from Rome's Fate 56
vii
Contents
-6-
Perceptions ofthe Past in Augustan and Imperial Rome 60
History Writingin the "New Rome" of Augustus 60
Historians and the Empire 65
-7-
The Christian Historiographical Revolution 77
The Formulation ofEarly Christian Historiography 77
The Problem ofContinuity in an Age ofUpheaval 88
The Carolingianand Anglo-Saxon Consolidationin Historiography 97
·8-
The Historiographical Mastery ofNew Peoples, States, and Dynasties 107
IntegratingPeoplesinto Latin Historiography 107
Legitimizing New States and Dynasties 112
-9·
Historiansand the Ideal ofthe Christian Commonwealth 121
The Last SynthesisofEmpire and Christianity 121
The Persistence ofChristianThemes 125
Histories ofaGrand and Holy Venture: The Crusades 132
-10-
Historiography's Adjustment to AcceleratingChange 138
The Search for Developmental Patterns 138
Transformations ofthe Chronicle 144
-II·
TwoTurningPoints
The Renaissanceand The Reformation 153
The Italian Renaissance Historians 153
Humanist Revisionism Outside ofItaly 162
The Collapse ofSpiritual Unity 166
-12·
The Continuing Modification ofTraditional Historiography 171
The BlendingofTheoreticaland Patriotic Answers 171
Universal History: ATroubled Tradition 177
Historians, the New Politics, and New Perceptions ofthe World 185
The Originand Early Forms ofAmerican History 195
-13 -
The Eighteenth-Century Quest fora New Historiography 199
The Reassessment ofHistoricalOrderand Truth 199
New Views on HistoricalTruth 201
New Grand Interpretations: Progressin History 205
New Grand Interpretations: The CyclicalPattern 210
viii
Contents
·14·
Three National Responses 215
The British Blend ofErudition, Elegance, and Empiricism 215
Enlightenment Historiography in a German Key 217
Recording the Birth ofthe American Nation 224
·15·
Historians as Interpreters ofProgress and Nation-I 228
German Historians: The Causes ofTruth and National Unity 229
France: Historians, the Nation, and Liberty 238
·16·
Historians as Interpreters ofProgress and Nation-II 248
English Historiography in the Age ofRevolution 248
Historians and the Building ofthe American Nation 255
Historiography's "Golden Age" 261
·17·
A First Prefatory Note to Modern Historiography (1860-1914) 268
·18·
History and the Quest for a Uniform Science 272
Comte's Call to Arms and the Response 272
The German and English Responses to Positivist Challenges 278
The Peculiar American Synthesis 286
·19·
The Discovery ofEconomic Dynamics 291
An Economic Perspective on the Past 291
Karl Marx: Paneconornic Historiography 293
Economic History afterMarx 297
·20·
Historians Encounter the l\1asses 303
Jubilant and Dark Visions 303
Social History as Institutional History 306
The American "New History": Call for aDemocratic History 313
·21 ·
The Problem ofWorld History 319
·22·
A Second Prefatory Note to Modern Historiography (since 1914) 323
ix