Past Futures: The Impossible Necessity of History / Edition 1

by Ged Martin

Overview

In this reconstruction of a series of lectures given at the U. of Ontario, Martin (retired, history, U. of Edinburgh, UK) argues that many of the tasks assumed to be the goals of the historian— such as establishing historical causality and divining the intentions of historical actors—are fundamentally impossible. The task of history should instead be to locate events in time and identify their relationships to each other and ourselves. Essential to this goal is an interrogation of the notion of significance and the way significance changes over time. Precisely because the present is provisional, Martin contends, historical conceptions of significance will produce constantly changing perspectives. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780802086457
Publisher:	University of Toronto Press, Scholarly Publishing Division
Publication date:	12/28/2004
Series:	Joanne Goodman Lectures Series
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	326
Product dimensions:	6.06(w) x 9.04(h) x 0.93(d)

About the Author

Ged Martin formerly held the chair of Canadian Studies at the University of Edinburgh.

Table of Contents

	Acknowledgments	ix
1	Redefining History at the Centre of Debate	3
2	History versus the Past	11
3	The Impossibility of Explanation	33
4	The Moment of Decision	77
5	Past Futures	109
6	A Long Time in History	149
7	Significance	187
8	Objections, Review, and Tailpiece	243
	Notes	263
	Index	295

What People are Saying About This

J.J. Lee

'Combining intellectual rigour with a sparkling style, Past Futures transcends its specific disciplinary genre to address fundamental questions concerning the foundations in which contemporary societies are rooted. Every historian, and indeed anyone who wishes to understand the nature of historical thought, should read and ponder it.'

John Laband

'In every sense, this is a work of high and committed scholarship. I cannot remember having read a work in historical explanation with such unalloyed delight.'