The New Cultural History (Volume 6)

Studies on the History of Society and Culture

by Lynn Hunt (Editor), Alette Biersack

Across the humanities and the social sciences, disciplinary boundaries have come into question as scholars have acknowledged their common preoccupations with cultural phenomena ranging from rituals and ceremonies to texts and discourse. Literary critics, for example, have turned to history for a deepening of their notion of cultural products; some of them now read historical documents in the same way that they previously read "great" texts. Anthropologists have turned to the history of their own discipline in order to better understand the ways in which disciplinary authority was constructed. As historians have begun to participate in this ferment, they have moved away from their earlier focus on social theoretical models of historical development toward concepts taken from cultural anthropology and literary criticism.

Much of the most exciting work in history recently has been affiliated with this wide-ranging effort to write history that is essentially a history of culture. The essays presented here provide an introduction to this movement within the discipline of history. The essays in Part One trace the influence of important models for the new cultural history, models ranging from the pathbreaking work of the French cultural critic Michel Foucault and the American anthropologist Clifford Geertz to the imaginative efforts of such contemporary historians as Natalie Davis and E. P. Thompson, as well as the more controversial theories of Hayden White and Dominick LaCapra. The essays in Part Two are exemplary of the most challenging and fruitful new work of historians in this genre, with topics as diverse as parades in 19th-century America, 16th-century Spanish texts, English medical writing, and the visual practices implied in Italian Renaissance frescoes. Beneath this diversity, however, it is possible to see the commonalities of the new cultural history as it takes shape. Students, teachers, and general readers interested in the future of history will find these essays stimulating and provocative.

Genres: History, World History, Sociology, Cultural Studies, Nonfiction

244 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1989

About the author

Lynn Avery Hunt is the Eugen Weber Professor of Modern European History at the University of California, Los Angeles. Her area of expertise is the French Revolution, but she is also well known for her work in European cultural history on such topics as gender. Her 2007 work, Inventing Human Rights, has been heralded as the most comprehensive analysis of the history of human rights. She served as president of the American Historical Association in 2002.

Reviews

[Derek · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you didn’t read this in the 1990s or early 2000s, you weren’t in graduate school training for a poorly paid career.

[Jerry · Rating 4 out of 5]

thomas laqueuer

[Kristi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hunt traces the paradigm shifts within historical studies from social history toward an interdisciplinary cultural history, in which economics and politics become subsidiary to and situated within culture. Drawing on sociology, anthology, art history, and literary studies, Hunt briefly explores how scholars have broadened historical understanding, pointing to gender and diversity in particular. According to Hunt interdisciplinary studies promotes cohesive unity through interpretation.

[Breno Coelho · Rating 4 out of 5]

Me lembro de ter lido na faculdade esse livro e achado confuso. Ao reler fiquei surpreso ao ter uma impressão totalmente diferente (com exceção do último artigo, totalmente arrogante, confuso dispensável). Oferece um bom resumo das tendencias da historiografia do "linguistic turn". Desse modo espero utilizá-lo na minha pesquisa para fazer a crítica em favor de uma historiografia ciêntifica e crítica.

[Paula · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the reasons I enjoyed this book so much was its sheer accessibility. Succinct, thought-provoking essays, particularly the one that analyzed how readers read and engage with various genres and mediums.