Imagined Histories: American Historians Interpret the Past

Published by Princeton University Press 1999

Imagined Histories

American Historians Interpret the Past

Edited by: Anthony Molho and Gordon S. Wood

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780691187341

Overview
Contents

About this book

This collection of essays by twenty-one distinguished American historians reflects on a peculiarly American way of imagining the past. At a time when history-writing has changed dramatically, the authors discuss the birth and evolution of historiography in this country, from its origins in the late nineteenth century through its present, more cosmopolitan character.

In the book's first part, concerning recent historiography, are chapters on exceptionalism, gender, economic history, social theory, race, and immigration and multiculturalism. Authors are Daniel Rodgers, Linda Kerber, Naomi Lamoreaux, Dorothy Ross, Thomas Holt, and Philip Gleason. The three American centuries are discussed in the second part, with chapters by Gordon Wood, George Fredrickson, and James Patterson. The third part is a chronological survey of non-American histories, including that of Western civilization, ancient history, the middle ages, early modern and modern Europe, Russia, and Asia. Contributors are Eugen Weber, Richard Saller, Gabrielle Spiegel, Anthony Molho, Philip Benedict, Richard Kagan, Keith Baker, Joseph Zizak, Volker Berghahn, Charles Maier, Martin Malia, and Carol Gluck.

Together, these scholars reveal the unique perspective American historians have brought to the past of their own nation as well as that of the world. Formerly writing from a conviction that America had a singular destiny, American historians have gradually come to share viewpoints of historians in other countries about which they write. The result is the virtual disappearance of what was a distinctive American voice. That voice is the subject of this book.

Author / Editor information

Anthony Molho is the David Herlihy University Professor and Professor of History at Brown University. He is the author of Marriage Alliance in Late Medieval Florence (1994) and coeditor of City-States in Classical Antiquity and Medieval Italy (1992). Gordon S. Wood is the Alva O. Way University Professor and Professor of History at Brown University. His books include The Creation of the American Republic, 1776-1787 (1969) and The Radicalism of the American Revolution (1992).

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
PREFACE Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	vii
INTRODUCTION Anthony Molho and Gordon S. Wood Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
CHAPTER 1. Exceptionalism Daniel T. Rodgers Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	21
CHAPTER 2. Gender Linda K. Kerber Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	41
CHAPTER 3. Economic History and the Cliometric Revolution Naomi R. Lamoreaux Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	59
CHAPTER 4. The New and Newer Histories: Social Theory and Historiography in an American Key Dorothy Ross Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	85
CHAPTER 5. Explaining Racism in American History Thomas C. Holt Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	107
CHAPTER 6. Crèvecoeur's Question: Historical Writing on Immigration, Ethnicity, and National Identity Philip Gleason Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	120
CHAPTER 7. The Relevance and Irrelevance of American Colonial History Gordon S. Wood Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	144
CHAPTER 8. Nineteenth-Century American History George M. Fredrickson Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	164
CHAPTER 9. Americans and the Writing of Twentieth-Century United States History James T. Patterson Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	185
CHAPTER 10. Western Civilization Eugen Weber Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	206
CHAPTER 11. American Classical Historiography Richard Saller Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	222
CHAPTER 12. In the Mirrors Eye: The Writing of Medieval History in America Gabrielle M. Spiegel Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	238
CHAPTER 13. The Italian Renaissance, Made in the USA Anthony Molho Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	263
CHAPTER 14. Between Whig Traditions and New Histories: American Historical Writing about Reformation and Early Modern Europe Philip Benedict Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	295
CHAPTER 15. Prescotts Paradigm: American Historical Scholarship and the Decline of Spain Richard L. Kagan Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	324
CHAPTER 16. The American Historiography of the French Revolution Keith Michael Baker and Joseph Zizek Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	349
CHAPTER 17. Modern Europe in American Historical Writing Volker Berghahn and Charles Maier Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	393
CHAPTER 18. Clio in Tauris: American Historiography on Russia Martin Malia Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	415
CHAPTER 19. House of Mirrors: American History-Writing on Japan Carol Gluck Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	434
LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	455
INDEX Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	459