Fashioning History: Current Practices and Principles

Historians In The Early Twenty-first Century Must Reconcile Long-standing Approaches To Evidence And Narrative With The Challenges Posed By Postmodern Criticism, The Explosion Of Historical Sources And Interpretations On The Internet, And The Popularity Of Histories Provided In Movies And On Television. Fashioning History Is The First Book To Develop And Apply The Same Methods Of Source Analysis And Principles Of Synthesis To The Chief Forms Historical Representations Take In The Early Twenty-first Century: To Moving Images And Web Sites As Well As Books And Articles, To Museum Exhibitions And Historical Sites As Well As Classrooms And Archives, To Memory And Heritage As Well As Conventional Histories. The Result Is An Illuminating Assessment Of The Discipline, Indispensable To Those Who Wish To Understand The Ever-changing Landscape Of The Historical Profession.--jacket. Pt. I. Construing The Past As History : Processes And Presuppositions -- 1. Historical Methods : From Evidence To Facts -- 2. Historical Synthesis : From Statements To Histories -- Pt. Ii. Comparing Histories : Forms, Functions, Factuality, And The Bigger Picture -- 3. Texts As Archives And Histories -- 4. Things In And As Exhibits, Museums, And Historic Sites -- 5. Films As Historical Representations And Recources -- Afterword: The History Effect And Representations Of The Past. Robert F. Berkhofer, Jr. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [219]-257) And Index.