(History in the Making) [By: Elliott, J.h.] [Sep, 2012]

by J.H. Elliott

From the vantage point of nearly sixty years devoted to research and the writing of history, J. H. Elliott steps back from his work to consider the progress of historical scholarship. From his own experiences as a historian of Spain, Europe, and the Americas, he provides a deft and sharp analysis of the work that historians do and how the field has changed since the 1950s.The author begins by explaining the roots of his interest in Spain and its past, then analyzes the challenges of writing the history of a country other than one's own. In succeeding chapters he offers acute observations on such topics as the history of national and imperial decline, political history, biography, and art and cultural history. Elliott concludes with an assessment of changes in the approach to history over the past half-century, including the impact of digital technology, and argues that a comprehensive vision of the past remains essential. Professional historians, students of history, and those who read history for pleasure will find in Elliott's delightful book a new appreciation of what goes into the shaping of historical works and how those works in turn can shape the world of thought and action.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

Hardcover

First published January 1, 2012

About the author

Sir John Huxtable Elliott, FBA, was an English historian, Regius Professor Emeritus at the University of Oxford and Honorary Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford and Trinity College, Cambridge. He published under the name J.H. Elliott.

Elliott was educated at Eton College and Trinity College, Cambridge. He was an assistant lecturer at Cambridge University from 1957 to 1962 and Lecturer in History from 1962 until 1967, and was subsequently Professor of History at King's College, London between 1968 and 1973. In 1972 he was elected to the Fellowship of the British Academy. Elliott was Professor in the School of Historical Studies at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, New Jersey from 1973 to 1990, and was Regius Professor of Modern History, Oxford between 1990 and 1997.

He held honorary doctorates from the Autonomous University of Madrid (1983), the universities Genoa (1992), Portsmouth (1993), Barcelona (1994), Warwick (1995), Brown University (1996), Valencia (1998), Lleida (1999), Complutense University of Madrid (2003), College of William & Mary (2005), London (2007), Charles III University of Madrid (2008), Seville (2011), Alcalá (2012), and Cambridge (2013). Elliott is a Fellow of the Rothermere American Institute, University of Oxford, of whose Founding Council he was also a member.

Elliott was knighted in the 1994 New Year Honours for services to history and was decorated with Commander of Isabella the Catholic in 1987, the Grand Cross of Alfonso the Wise in 1988, the Grand Cross of Isabella the Catholic in 1996, and the Creu de Sant Jordi in 1999. An eminent Hispanist, he was given the Prince of Asturias Prize in 1996 for his contributions to the Social sciences. For his outstanding contributions to the history of Spain and the Spanish Empire in the early modern period, Elliott was awarded the Balzan Prize for History, 1500–1800, in 1999.

His studies of the Iberian Peninsula and the Spanish Empire helped the understanding of the problems confronting 16th- and 17th-century Spain, and the attempts of its leaders to avert its decline. He is considered, together with Raymond Carr and Angus Mackay, a major figure in developing Spanish historiography.

Reviews

[Malakh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Publicado en el año 2012, este libro de John H. Elliott es presentado desde su misma introducción como un escrito «personal e impersonal». Impersonal ya que trata de abordar cuestiones historiográficas de gran relevancia para esta disciplina durante los últimos setenta años. Personal porque el autor se sirve de sus propias experiencias para el tratamiento de estos problemas, utilizando sus obras e investigaciones como herramienta para sus reflexiones y escogiendo los temas que conciernen a su campo de estudio.

La parte más interesante del libro son los primeros capítulos, en los que narra sus inicios como historiador y el origen de su atracción por la historia de España. Sus visitas a la piel de toro durante la etapa franquista para estudiar la documentación custodiada en el Archivo de Simancas, así como sus andanzas por la Península, son relatadas de manera sencilla pero cautivadora y envolvente. A su vez, el proceso de decisión de la temática de su tesis doctoral se encuentra repleta de consejos para futuros investigadores.

Desgraciadamente, llegado un momento de la obra, esta pierde su carácter testimonial, abandonando la calidez de sus inicios para derivar en una serie de capítulos titulados según el debate metodológico del que versan. Historia nacional y transnacional, historia política y biografía, historia comparada, etc. son aquellas perspectivas teóricas que examina en función de sus propias experiencias y publicaciones, terminando en numerosas ocasiones por emplear sus páginas como breviarios históricos acerca de la España del siglo XVII. Un final abrupto y carente de conclusiones cierra una obra que en cierto modo aflige por lo que pudo ser y no fue.

Es bien cierto que, desde su misma presentación, la obra expresa abiertamente lo que nos vamos a encontrar en sus páginas; no obstante, el escrito deja una sensación de fracaso, pues no logra ser ni una relación de sus experiencias a lo largo de su carrera como historiador ni una exposición rigurosa con un análisis serio de las disputas y cambios en la historiografía. Lamentablemente, permanece en un tibio punto intermedio que no creo que satisfaga ni al lector que se inicia en el estudio profesional de la historia ni al simple curioso que desea introducirse en estas cuestiones.

[Tiago Peres · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gostei muito de "Haciendo historia". Elliot aborda os problemas metodológicos aos que se enfrenta um historiador através da sua própria produção académica. Aliás, fá-lo duma forma muito divulgativa, tão comum nos historiadores ingleses, embora o conteúdo seja em muitas ocasiões mais próprio de historiadores profissionáis. Gostei particularmente quando fala da importância da História comparada ou quando no capítulo 7 distingue entre historiadores paraquedistas ou buscadores de trufas, é dizer entre aqueles partidários duma visão ampla da história ou os que tendem a especializar-se num âmbito muito específico da história. Elliot defende que ambas opções não devem ser imcompatíves, embora "El precio de este dominio sectorial ha sido con demasiada frecuencia la reducción del enfoque y en última instancia una pérdida de ambición histórica".

[Nino Vallen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Having read most of Elliott's magnificent historical legacy, I was really curious to learn more about the historian and the person behind these works. History in the Making certainly provided me with some insights, but it could not always convince me entirely. Of the six chapters, I found the first two the most interesting. This is mainly because it was the chapter that appears the most personal, as it treats about Elliott's time as a student in Spain, and because of the themes it discusses. But after that the book rapidly started to lose some of its personal character and become more of a general reflection upon the perspectives of the writing of history. The references to an older, classical literature that has shaped the author are interesting, but the way they are discussed in relation to a newer historiography remains rather superficial. As I progressed in the book I had the idea that the surprising insights became less and less. Finally, the book's end without any form of conclusion or epilogue was actually disappointing. However, for anyone without much knowledge of the early-modern (Iberian) world, Elliott's reflections provide a very readable introduction into the themes that have preoccupied historians of this period over the last half a century. In this sense, the work is a fine accomplishment.

[Simon Mcleish · Rating 2 out of 5]

I felt this book should have been a lot more interesting than it turned out to be. It's a combination of autobiography and an analysis of the development of methods in academic history during the career of an influential historian at a time of great change in the subject. Elliott had interesting episodes in his life, including time spent in Franco's Spain as a young man, rather naively researching matters which turned out to be politically contentious in the archives of the seventeenth century monarchy and in local archives which survived in Catalonia. But much of the autobiographical stuff reads as a lengthy puff for his books; important though they might be, I didn't really want to read this. The topics covered in the theoretical background to history sections - what is meant by history, what is the role of social sciences such as economics, political studies and sociology, how does cultural history relate to other types of history, how can the past best be understood today, how best to approach the study of historical events which have become modern nationalist rallying points - are all potentially interesting to me, but the way they were covered just sent me to sleep.

[Mills College Library]

946.0072 E466 2012