Debating New Approaches to History

With its innovative format, Debating New Approaches to History addresses issues currently at the top of the discipline’s theoretical and methodological agenda. In its chapters, leading historians of both older and younger generations from across the Western world and beyond discuss and debate the main problems and challenges that historians are facing today. Each chapter is followed by a critical commentary from another key scholar in the field and the author’s response. The volume looks at topics such as the importance and consequences of the ‘digital turn’ in history (what will history writing be like in a digital age?), the challenge of posthumanist theory for history writing (how do we write the history of non-humans?) and the possibilities of moving beyond traditional sources in history and establishing a dialogue with genetics and neurosciences (what are the perspectives and limits of the so-called ‘neurohistory’?). It also revisits older debates in history which remain crucial, such as what the gender approach can offer to historical research or how to write history on a global scale. Debating New Approaches to History does not just provide a useful overview of the new approaches to history it covers, but also offers insights into current historical debates and the process of historical method in the making. It demonstrates how the discipline of history has responded to challenges in society – such as digitalization, globalization and environmental concerns – as well as in humanities and social sciences, such as the ‘material turn’, ‘visual turn’ or ‘affective turn’. This is a key volume for all students of historiography wanting to keep their finger on the pulse of contemporary thinking in historical research.

Table of Contents:
Introduction, Marek Tamm (Tallinn University, Estonia) 1. Global History Contributor: Jürgen Osterhammel (University of Konstanz, Germany) Commentator: Pierre-Yves Saunier (Université Laval, Canada) 2. Environmental History Contributor: Grégory Quénet (Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines University, France) Commentator: Sverker Sörlin (KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden) 3. Gender History Contributor: Laura Lee Downs (European University Institute, Italy; EHESS, France) Commentator: Miri Rubin (Queen Mary University of London, UK) 4. Postcolonial History Contributor: Rochona Majumdar (University of Chicago, USA) Commentator: Prasenjit Duara (Duke University, USA) 5. History of Memory Contributor: Geoffrey Cubitt (University of York, UK) Commentator: Ann Rigney (Utrecht University, The Netherlands) 6. History of Emotions Contributor: Piroska Nagy (Université du Québec à Montréal, Canada) Commentator: Ute Frevert (Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Germany) 7. History of Knowledge Contributor: Martin Mulsow (Erfurt University, Germany) Commentator: Lorraine Daston (Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Germany) 8. History of Things Contributor: Ivan Gaskell (Bard Graduate Center, USA) Commentator: Bjørnar Olsen (UiT – The Arctic University of Norway) 9. History of Visual Culture Contributor: Gil Bartholeyns (Université de Lille 3, France) Commentator: Jean-Claude Schmitt (EHESS, France) 10. Digital History Contributor: Jane Winters (School of Advanced Study, University of London, UK) Commentator: Steve F. Anderson (University of California, Los Angeles, USA) 11. Neurohistory Contributor: Rob Boddice (Freie Universität Berlin, Germany; McGill University in Montreal, Canada) Commentator: Daniel Lord Smail (Harvard University, USA) 12. Posthumanist History Contributor: Ewa Domanska (Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan, Poland; Stanford University, USA) Commentator: Dominick LaCapra (Cornell University, USA) Conclusion, Peter Burke (University of Cambridge, UK) Index

About the Author :
Marek Tamm is Professor of Cultural History and Senior Research Fellow at the School of Humanities in Tallinn University, Estonia. He is also Head of Tallinn University Centre of Excellence in Intercultural Studies. His publications in English include an edited volume, Afterlife of Events: Perspectives on Mnemohistory (2015) and Crusading and Chronicle Writing on the Medieval Baltic Frontier (with Linda Kaljundi and Carsten Selch Jensen, 2011). Peter Burke is Professor Emeritus of Cultural History and Life Fellow of Emmanuel College at Cambridge University, UK. He is a Fellow of the British Academy and has published 26 books, and his work has so far been translated into 33 languages. His publications include History and Social Theory (1992, revised edition 2005) and an edited book, New Perspectives on Historical Writing (1991, revised edition 2000).

Review :
This book’s self-styled framework for debating new approaches to history is to be applauded. … Debating New Approaches to History is competent, skilled, and comprehensive. Anyone looking for a solid and highly original introduction to new developments in the history of historical writing need not look further than this absolutely riveting book. Some of the leading contemporary historians are writing lucidly and engagingly about cutting-edge developments in historiography. A collection of stimulating and informative essays that serves extremely well the two ambitions announced in the title of the book: to introduce and debate methods and perspectives that have critically influenced the discipline of history in the last few decades, from globalization and postcolonial criticism to post-humanism and the Anthropocene. The debates here will enliven the classroom and inspire the practitioner. This is an excellent cutting edge work that provides insights into some of the most exciting new approaches to historiography. It is essential both for graduate students looking to get a handle on new methodologies, and to established scholars who are seeking new paths for their work. A challenging, contentious, thought-provoking book. A sophisticated, nuanced approach to emerging fields in the study of history. Marek Tamm’s instructive introduction emphasizes the importance of new global perspectives informing current historiography, providing a framework for a volume which both indicates some of the problematical aspects of the new work and calls for theoretical reflection on its meaning, scope and potential contributions. This is a work that anyone interested in history and historical writing will want to read.