Make Believe
Historians are tethered to the archive, but sometimes fixing the gaps requires the techniques of a novelist.
Historiography
Why Study the Past?
History can teach, inspire, warn, include and exclude; its uses change to fit the present moment.
The Forging of a Communist
The historian Eric Hobsbawm kept faith with the Marxist orthodoxies of his youth even after the Soviet invasions of Hungary in 1956, of Czechoslovakia in 1968 and the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Why?
Is Social Media Good for History?
Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms are widely used by historians. But does anyone benefit?
The Studious Resistance of Marc Bloch
A French medieval historian, who served his country in both world wars, helped pioneer a new approach to history in between them.
Is There Still Value in ‘Great Man’ History?
How important is the study of the powerful, epoch-defining individual?
The Romantic Myth of the Solitary Scholar
Despite the myth of a lone genius toiling away into the night, history is a collective endeavour.
History has a History
Historiography is one of the essential tools for unlocking the past. Without it, history is a bloodless pursuit.
Portrait of the Author as a Historian: Fernand Braudel
The leading light of the French Annales school revolutionised the writing of history by imbuing it with wider, holistic, narratives and literary flair, says Alexander Lee.
Shifting Sands: Historians Change Their Minds
Inspired by a recent article in the New Statesman, we asked seven historians about how their understanding of the past has changed.