Modern Historians on British History, 1485-1945 [antikvár]

This book grew out of an invitation from the editors of the Historische Zeitschrift to produce an article reviewing the writings on modern English history that had appeared since the end of the Second World War; the resulting Literaturbericht, running down to May 1967, appeared in Sonderhefts (1969). I am grateful to the Historische Zeitschrift, and especially to its now retired editor, Professer W. Kienast, for allowing me to treat that article as my own property. The suggestion made by Mr Peter Wait, of Methuen & Co., that an English version might be useful, found support here and there: hence this book. It differs from the German version in several respects. In the first place, I have continued the story down to the end of 1969. Secondly, the fact that I now have rather more space, and the disquieting discovery of too many omissions, have enabled me to add quite a few items that should have been there before. And lastly, I soon found that it would not be advisable to produce a straight translation. The earlier version was addressed to a German audience unfamiliar with developments in English historiography; the present one thus needs to speak differently and in a different tone. Instead of translating, I have rewritten. The twenty-five years which have passed since peace restored English scholars to their more normal employment have seen some remarkable transformations in our understanding of English history since the accession of the Tudors. Even though pre-war books and pre-war scholars have not vanished from the field, one may with justice speak of a major renewal and -so far as parts of the story are concerned - of a total reconstitution. There are areas of this history in which nothing written before 1945 can usefully be consulted, and for the whole period it is fair to say that no synthesis - no textbook or general