Defining the History of Ideas

A comparison of the recently-published New Dictionary of the History of Ideas (2005) with its predecessor, The Dictionary of the History of Ideas (1973), reveals much about the development of the history of ideas itself over the last half century. Generally, there has been a movement from a defense of the "Western tradition" against illiberal forces of left and right to an attempt to explore and understand the immense variety of post-colonial identities. Some failings of the New Dictionary, however, suggest that the discipline has yet fully to solve the problems posed by this new orientation.