By Karen Hagemann (NHC Fellow, 2011–12) In 2013, Germany celebrated the bicentennial of the so-called Wars of Liberation (1813–15). These wars were the culmination of the Prussian struggle against Napoleon between 1806 and 1815, which occupied a key position in German national historiography and memory. Although these conflicts have been analyzed in thousands of books … Continued
By Marcus Bull (NHC Fellow, 2014–15) Eyewitness is a familiar label that historians apply to numerous pieces of evidence. It carries compelling connotations of trustworthiness and particular proximity to the lived experience of historical actors. But it has received surprisingly little critical attention. This book seeks to open up discussion of what we mean when … Continued
By Michel-Rolph Trouillot (NHC Fellow, 1985–86) Michel-Rolph Trouillot places the West’s failure to acknowledge the most successful slave revolt in history, the Haitian Revolution, alongside denials of the Holocaust and the debate over the Alamo and Christopher Columbus in this moving and thought-provoking meditation on how power operates in the making and recording of history. Silencing … Continued
By Donald R. Kelley (NHC Fellow, 1984–85) In this book, one of the world’s leading intellectual historians offers a critical survey of Western historical thought and writing from the pre-classical era to the late eighteenth century. Donald R. Kelley focuses on persistent themes and methodology, including questions of myth, national origins, chronology, language, literary forms, … Continued
By E. Roy Weintraub (NHC Fellow, 1988–89) Today, economic theory is a mathematical theory, but that was not always the case. Major changes in the ways economists presented their arguments to one another occurred between the late 1930s and the early 1950s; over that period the discipline became mathematized. Professor Weintraub, a noted scholar of … Continued
By Andrea Frisch (NHC Fellow, 2004–05) By juxtaposing representations of the French civil war past as they appear (and frequently overlap) in historiography and tragedy from 1550-1630, Andrea Frisch tracks changes in the ways in which history and tragedy sought to 'move' readers throughout the period of the wars and in their wake. The book … Continued
By Morris Eaves (NHC Fellow, 1984–85) William Blake thought that the art establishment of Georgian England was controlled by 'a gang of cunning hired knaves' conspiring to suppress genuine originality and creativity. This ground-breaking study examines the reasons for his belief, and sets it against the political, commercial, religious and technological conditions of the day. … Continued
By John Higham (NHC Fellow, 1987–88; 1988–89) This book presents three decades of writings by one of America’s most distinguished historians. John Higham, renowned for his influential works on immigration, ethnicity, political symbolism, and the writing of history, here traces the changing contours of American culture since its beginnings, focusing on the ways that an … Continued
Edited by Josiah Ober (NHC Fellow, 1983–84) and John William Eadie
Edited by Edward Muir (NHC Fellow, 1992–93) and Guido Ruggiero This work demonstrates how a sophisticated analysis of documents once thought beneath scholarly notice–criminal records–can offer stunning new insights into the past.