That Noble Dream: The 'Objectivity Question' and the American Historical Profession
Peter Novick
(Author)
James Tully
(Editor)
Description
The aspiration to relate the past "as it really happened" has been the central goal of American professional historians since the late nineteenth century. In this remarkable history of the profession, Peter Novick shows how the idea and ideal of objectivity was elaborated, challenged, modified, and defended over the past century. Drawing on the unpublished correspondence as well as the published writing of hundreds of American historians, this book is a richly textured account of what American historians have thought they were doing, or ought to be doing, when they wrote history--how their principles influenced their practice and practical exigencies influenced their principles. Published with the support of the Exxon Education Foundation.Product Details
Price
$34.99
$32.54
Publisher
Cambridge University Press
Publish Date
September 30, 1988
Pages
662
Dimensions
6.0 X 9.0 X 1.5 inches | 2.0 pounds
Language
English
Type
Paperback
EAN/UPC
9780521357456
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About the Author
Peter Novick is professor of history at the University of Chicago. He is the author of The Resistance Versus Vichy and That Noble Dream: The Objectivity Question and the American Historical Profession, which won the American Historical Association's prize for the best book of the year in American history.
James Tully is Professor Emeritus at the University of Victoria, Canada. His works include An Approach to Political Philosophy: Locke in Contexts (Cambridge, 1993), Strange Multiplicity: Constitutionalism in an Age of Diversity (Cambridge, 1995), Public Philosophy in a New Key, 2 volumes (Cambridge, 2008), On Global Citizenship: James Tully in Dialogue (2014), and Nichols and Singh, editors., Freedom and Democracy in an Imperial Context: Dialogue with James Tully (2014). He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, Emeritus Fellow of the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation, and recipient of both the Killam Prize in the Humanities (2012) and the C. B. MacPherson Prize for Public Philosophy in a New Key. He was co-editor of the Cambridge University Press 'Ideas in Context Series' for twenty years.
Reviews
"This is a work marked by admirable clarity, wide-ranging and imaginative research, and thoughtful judgements. At one level it explores a question of central concern to scholars of many disciplines--the quest for objectivity in reading and writing. Displaying impressive command of intellectual history, Novick situates this quest in broader currents of American thought over the past century. That Noble Dream is finally a serious and often provocative treatment of the professionalization in the United States of the discipline of history." From the Allan C. Beveridge Award Citation
"Professional historians and aspiring professionals will welcome this immensely informative and thoughtful book." E. Cassara, Choice
"Peter Novick has written an unprecedented and invaluable study of the idea of objectivity among historians...He has written a rich and powerful narrative. No other scholar has made such a marvelous contribution to our understanding of the history profession during its first century." David W. Noble, Reviews in American History
"Professional historians and aspiring professionals will welcome this immensely informative and thoughtful book." E. Cassara, Choice
"Peter Novick has written an unprecedented and invaluable study of the idea of objectivity among historians...He has written a rich and powerful narrative. No other scholar has made such a marvelous contribution to our understanding of the history profession during its first century." David W. Noble, Reviews in American History
