Clio, Columbia, And The Cosmopolitans: Beyond American Exceptionalism And The Nation–State

Books reviewed in this article:
Thomas Bender, Rethinking American History In A Global Age     

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。     

历史、文化与民族:20世纪前期中国文化史的兴起

20世纪初,西方“文化”概念成为整理传统中国历史遗产的重要概念工具。国人编纂文化史有意展现传统中国的文化成就,反映出中西文化竞争下,国人隐秘的文化争胜意识。“文化”与“历史”结合,逐渐成为历史叙事的核心概念。文化史在史学研究的对象、价值判断、时代分期、研究方法等方面发展出自身特征,亦反映出西方文明史、文化史在理论和实践方面对中国“新史学”的影响。文化史在实践中注重对民族历史生活的呈现,表现出民族史的特征,其叙述特定群体或民族社会生活的方方面面,揭示群体的精神内核。历史、文化与民族融会一体,在西学东渐、传统文化权威失坠的情况下,文化史构建了一种彰显社会凝聚力的叙事。     

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.     

Review Article: Toynbee,McNeill, and the Myth of History

WILLIAM H. MCNEILL. Arnold J. Toynbee: A Life. New York: Oxford University Press, 1989. Pp. viii, 346. $24.95 (US); Reviewed by Gordon Martel

C.T. MCINTIRE and MARVIN PERRY, eds. Toynbee: Reappraisals. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1989. Pp. viii, 254. $40.00 (CAN). Reviewed by Gordon Martel     

History, the Referent, and Narrative: Reflections on Postmodernism Now

This essay surveys the present position of postmodernism with respect to the effect of its ideas upon historiography. For this purpose it looks at a number of writings by historians that have been a response to postmodernism including the recently published collection of articles, The Postmodern History Reader . The essay argues that, in contrast to scholars in the field of literary studies, the American historical profession has been much more resistant to postmodernist doctrines and that the latters' influence upon the thinking and practice of historians is not only fading but increasingly destined to fade. The essay also presents a critical discussion of the current philosophy of postmodernism in its bearing upon historiography, directed chiefly against its claim that the world has undergone an epochal transition from the modern to a postmodern age; its theory of language and linguistic idealism; its opposition to historical realism and denial of the actuality of the past as a possible object of reference; and its theory of historical narrative as unconstrained fictional construction. This discussion includes a consideration of the work of postmodernist thinkers such as J.-F. Lyotard, of the recent books by David Roberts and Robert F. Berkhofer, Jr. which espouse a postmodernist theory of history, and of the narrativist theory of Hayden White. The essay also notes some of the reasons for postmodernism's appeal; and while it does not deny that postmodernist philosophy may have served a useful purpose in provoking historians to be more self-critical and aware of their presuppositions and procedures, it maintains that its skeptical and politicized view of historical inquiry is deeply mistaken, out of accord with the way historians themselves think about their work, and incapable of providing an understanding of historiography as a form of thought engaged in the attainment of knowledge and understanding of the human past.