History: Its Theory And Method

The second edition of this well-known book studies three aspects, namely, the theory, the methodology and the historiography of history and is therefore divided into three parts. In the first part all theoretical problems as to what constitutes history, its nature, value, subject matter, philosophy, structure and form are discussed. The second part is about methodology wherein a graphic account is given on the techniques of writing history. All aspects of methodology from conceiving a subject to the completion of the work are dealt with. Preliminary operations, analytical operations and synthetic operations are described. The third part is on historiography-from the earliest period to the present day-which deals with the history of historical writing. This edition contains a new chapter on American Historiography.The merit of the book lies in the interpretation of ideas. A lot of thinking has been bestowed and difficult concepts have been made lucid and intelligible. A special feature is that all concepts are illustrated with suitable examples from Indian history and world history. On many issues such as the nature of history, the author has presented some of his original research material.