In White's view, beyond the surface level of the historical text, there is a deep structural, or latent, content that is generally poetic and specifically linguistic in nature. This deeper content—the metahistorical element—indicates what an “appropriate” historical explanation should be.
In pursuing his thesis, White provides a book that will be of interest to philosophers as well as historians. He explicates the styles of such historians as Michelet, Ranke, Tocqueville, and Borchardt and of such philosophers of history as Hegel, Marx, Nietzsche, and Croce.
Hayden White is director of the Center for the Humanities and Adjunct Professor of Humanities at Wesleyan University.
Author(s): Hayden White
Edition: Second Printing
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
Year: 1979 (1973)
Language: English
Commentary: scantailor made
Pages: 450
City: Baltimore
Tags: historiography;history;metahistoryhisto00whit
Metahistory
Contents
Preface
Introduction: The Poetics of History
ONE: THE RECEIVED TRADITION: THE ENLIGHTENMENT AND THE PROBLEM OF HISTORICAL CONSCIOUSNESS
1 The Historical Imagination between Metaphor and Irony
2 Hegel: The Poetics of History and the Way beyond Irony
TWO: Four Kinds of “REALISM” IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY HISTORICAL WRITING
3 Michelet: Historical Realism as Romance
4 Ranke: Historical Realism as Comedy
5 Tocqueville: Historical Realism as Tragedy
6 Burckhardt: Historical Realism as Satire
THREE: THE REPUDIATION OF “REALISM” IN LATE NINETEENTH-CENTURY PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY
7 Historical Consciousness and the Rebirth of Philosophy of History
8 Marx: The Philosophical Defense of History in the Metonymical Mode
9 Nietzsche: The Poetic Defense of History in the Metaphorical Mode
10 Croce: The Philosophical Defense of History in the Ironic Mode
CONCLUSION
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX
