Making History, Talking about History

Making history—in the sense of writing it—is often set against talking about it, with most historians considering writing history to be better than talking about it. My aim in this article is to analyze the topic of making history versus talking about history in order to understand most historians' evident decision to ignore talking about history. Ultimately my goal is to determine whether it is possible to talk about history with any sense.
To this end, I will establish a typology of the different forms of talking practiced by historians, using a chronological approach, from the Greek andRoman emphasis on the visual witness to present-day narrativism and textual analysis. Having recognized the peculiar textual character of the historiographical work, I will then discuss whether one can speak of a method for analyzing historiographical works. After considering two possible approaches—the philosophy of science and literary criticism—I offer my own proposal. This involves breaking the dichotomy between making and talking about history, adopting a fuzzy method that overcomes the isolation of self-named scientific communities, and that destroys the barriers among disciplines that work with the same texts but often from mutually excluding perspectives. Talking about history is only possible if one knows about history and about its sources and methods, but also about the foundations of the other social sciences and about the continuing importance of traditional philosophical problems of Western thought in the fields of history and the human sciences.     

环境史：历史、理论和方法

环境和生态危机是当今世界最引人关注的突出问题之一。它不但促成了席卷全球的环保运动，还引起哲学、经济学、政治学、法学，社会学、人类学、伦理学等学科的广泛兴趣，历史学也不例外。环境史的形成和发展已成为国际史学界70年代以来最引人关注的新领域之一。我国早已把环境保护定为基本国策。其他学科研究环境问题的成果层出不穷，历史学的反应却相当迟缓。本文将从全球视野对环境史的兴起、发展、理论、方法及其存在的问题进行初步的分析。     

真诚的史家，真实的历史——新世纪史学的希冀和期望

2000年,中国社会科学院院报邀我写一篇对新千年祈愿的字。我在小开头就写了一段不大合乎时宜的话——21世纪即将来临。抒发迎接新世纪的豪言壮语,此其时也。作为历史癖,我更想在送别从前时,多一些回眸。过去的百年,从动荡走向稳定,从落后走向进步。人们在高歌辉煌灿烂之时,切勿忘记曲折失误;在津津乐道于历史进步之时,切勿忘记冷静地总结历史教训;尽管回忆往事,会带来一些苦涩哀痛。     

神话、传说与历史

本文旨在探讨神话、传说与历史的关系。为此,文章重新启用和评价了爱德华·泰勒关于神话传说属于"原始文化"的概念,从而在理论上找到了由神话传说到历史的通道,因为在此概念下神话传说无论以何种形态出现都包含了构建史前史的要素。为了借鉴这些历史因素,作者尝试性地提出了一种考察和解释神话传说的模式,即以"信史"或"真实的历史"为出发点,以信实性为衡量标准,将世界各主要文明的神话传说分成若干层次。作者认为,由于各种神话传说所包含的历史真实因素具有不同的层次和特点,因此必须综合借鉴社会学、人类学、古文字学、考古学、天文学等多种理论和方法,才能对形态各异的神话传说进行有利于历史研究的考察。     

Masculinity,Autobiography and History

Men's history—masculine history, if you will—begins when we redefine our usual notion of historical significance and when we shift our usual frame of reference. Once we have made these two conceptual adjustments, we uncover some secrets hidden in the familiar landscape of the past. More often—and ultimately more important—as we shift our angle of vision, we recognise new meanings in the evidence that lay in front of our eyes all along.¹ A man would never set out to write a book on the peculiar situation of the human male. But if I wish to define myself I must first of all say: ‘I am a woman’; a man never begins by presenting himself as an individual of a certain sex, it goes without saying that he is a man.²     

昨日的历史今日的辉煌——评《井陉矿区志》

《井陉矿区志》是石家庄市井陉矿区第一部志书,同时也是一部通志。它彰显了自己厚重的历史———采矿历史和革命斗争史,储存了丰富的史料,同时它又记述了中华人民共和国成立后,围绕矿区发展起来的各行各业的情况。作为一部现代通志,与第一轮志书贯通古今还有所差别;作为一部特殊的区志,与城市区志不同,与其他类型区志也有差别;现代通志与现代续志更有差别,这部志书体现出了这些差别。一资料丰富,尽显方志存史功能《井陉矿区志》作为一部通志,面临的是两轮志书资料收集工作,难度更大,然而他们的资料工作做得非常扎实。志书编纂者将建区前凡在…     

History,Hitler, and the Holocaust

EBERHARD JACKEL. Hitler in History. Hanover, N.H.: University Press of New England, 1984. Pp. 115; GERALD FLEMINO. Hitler and the Final Solution. Berkeley, Cal.: University of California Press, 1984. Pp. 219; MALCOLM c. MACPHERSON. The Blood of His Servants. New York: The New York Times Book Co., Inc., 1984. Pp. 310; ISABELLA LEITNER. Fragments of Isabella: A Memoir of Auschwitz. New York: Cowell Publishers, 1978. Pp. 112; JAMES BENTLEY. Martin Niemöller 1891–1984. New York: Free Press, 1984. Pp. 253; SAUL s. FRIEDMAN. The Oberammergau Passion Play: A Lance Against Civilization. Carbondale, Ill.: Southern Illinois University Press, 1984. Pp. 270; DAVID s. WYMAN. The Abandonment of the Jews: America and the Holocaust 1941–1945. New York: Pantheon Books, 1984. Pp. 445; WALTER N. BANNING. The Dissolution of Eastern European Jewry. Torrance, Cal.: Institute for Historical Review, 1983. Pp. 239.     

History,Differential Inclusions,and Narrative

Recent advances in the theory of dynamical systems, set‐valued analysis, and viability theory offer new and interesting perspectives on the shaping of social and historical time. Specific aspects of these theories are presented in several different areas to show their concrete applications in history and historical demo‐economy, and a parallel is established with novelist Tanizaki’s fictional technique. In connection with this, McCloskey’s 1991 comparison of storytelling with deterministic chaos is discussed and a critique of other models concerned with unpredictability in human affairs provided. Finally, the shapings of social and historical time are described in terms of the viable strategies at the heart of evolutionary processes involving human agents interacting with a variety of constraints. Sachiko could foresee great difficulties if her sister were to marry him, but at least for the time being they would not have to worry about what people thought. If on the other hand she married Itakura, she would be held up to public ridicule. Okubata seen by himself was not a happy choice, but he was certainly better than Itakura, and he could be their weapon to turn away the latter. 1 Junichiro Tanizaki, The Makioka Sisters (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1976), part 2, chapter 26, 278.
     

Mormon History,Text, Colour,and Rites

Mormonism's growth from its 1830 inception to its 2005 near twelve million world membership, has not only initiated a debate over whether, perhaps, it is likely to become the next world‐religion after Islam, ¹ 1 Stark, Rodney , “The Rise of a New World Faith,” Review of Religious Research 26 (1984 ): 18 – 27 .
but has, in recent decades, also witnessed the publication of numerous books that help foster an interest in what is already becoming a distinctive field of study. Though none of the four books reviewed here constitutes an introductory overview, ² 2 For which see, Thomas O'Dea, The Mormons (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1957); Jan Shipps, The Story of a New Religious Tradition (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1985); Douglas J. Davies, Introduction to Mormonism (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003).
each introduces a set of major issues within contemporary Mormon studies and engages, respectively, with faith‐related attitudes to historical material, the Book of Mormon, the changing status of black males in the church, and Freemasonry's impact on Mormonism's origin.