Historiography

Penelope J. Corfield studies urban, social and cultural history, plus approaches to Time and History. She is Emeritus Professor at Royal Holloway, London University; Visiting Professor at Newcastle University; and has held visiting posts in Australia, Hungary, Japan, Sweden and the USA.…

<p><span class="deck"> <span class="typestyle"> A distinguished historian describes how America, suddenly thrust into nationhood without a history of its own, set out to create one. And what a splendid achievement it was!</span> </span></p>

<p><span class="deck"> By no means, said W. H. Prescott. Absolutely, said Lord Acton. The question remains hard—and intriguing</span> </p>

<p>To what extent did greatness inhere in the man, and to what degree was it a product of the situation?</p>

<p><span class="deck">Remembering Samuel Eliot Morrison</span></p>

<p><span class="deck">A distinguished journalist and former presidential adviser says that, to find the meaning of any news story, we must dig for its roots in the past.</span></p>

<p><span class="deck">“Good fiction writers,” says the author, “write the kind of history that good historians can’t or don’t write.”</span></p>

<p>A preeminent author recalls his experience as one of America's first combat historians, among a handful of men who accompanied soldiers into the bloodiest battles to write history as it was being made.</p>

<p>In 1962, the president wrote for <em>American Heritage</em> that the study of history is no mere pastime, but the means by which a nation establishes its sense of identity and purpose.</p>

<p>America's leading authority on the conflict explains why the Civil War still fascinates us.</p>