In this Book
- Historical Evidence and Argument
- Book
- 2006
- Published by: University of Wisconsin Press
summary
Historians know about the past because they examine the evidence. But what exactly is “evidence,” how do historians know what it means—and how can we trust them to get it right? Historian David Henige tackles such questions of historical reliability head-on in his skeptical, unsparing, and acerbically witty Historical Evidence and Argument. “Systematic doubt” is his watchword, and he practices what he preaches through a variety of insightful assessments of historical controversies—for example, over the dating of artifacts and the textual analysis of translated documents. Skepticism, Henige contends, forces us to recognize the limits of our knowledge, but is also a positive force that stimulates new scholarship to counter it.
Table of Contents
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- Acknowledgments
- p. xi
- 1. Declaiming the Endtime
- pp. 1-4
- 2. Traveling Hopefully
- pp. 5-14
- 3. The Anxieties of Ambiguity
- pp. 15-28
- 4. Unraveling Gordian Knots
- pp. 29-41
- 5. When Too Much Is Not Enough
- pp. 42-57
- 7. Destroying in Order to Save
- pp. 65-76
- 8. Speaking of History
- pp. 77-90
- 9. Sensing Incongruity
- pp. 91-101
- 10. Poisoned Chalices
- pp. 102-116
- 11. Scotching the Myth-Making Machine
- pp. 117-124
- 12. Irreconcilable Differences
- pp. 125-133
- 13. “We’re Changing Everything . . . Again”
- pp. 134-147
- 14. Rule Life vs. Real Life
- pp. 148-160
- 15. When Might Makes Wrong
- pp. 161-172
- 16. Six Hundred Barrels of Plaster of Paris
- pp. 173-185
- 17. Millions of Moving Parts
- pp. 186-199
- 18. He Says, She Says
- pp. 200-210
- 19. Bringing Texts Up to Code
- pp. 211-222
- 20. Gaining and Providing Access
- pp. 223-235
- 21. Hearing a White Horse Coming
- pp. 236-244
- Bibliography
- pp. 279-316
Additional Information
ISBN
9780299214135
Related ISBN(s)
9780299214104
MARC Record
OCLC
646769098
Pages
339
Launched on MUSE
2012-01-01
Language
English
Open Access
No
Copyright
2005