Western Historical Thinking: An Intercultural Debate

by Jörn Rüsen (Editor), Universitat Bielefeld Forschungsgruppe Historische Sinnbildung

What is history – a question historians have been asking themselves time and again. Does "history" as an academic discipline, as it has evolved in the West over the centuries, represent a specific mode of historical thinking that can bedefined in contrast to other forms of historical consciousness? In this volume, Peter Burke, a prominent "Western" historian, offers ten hypotheses that attempt to constitute specifically "Western Historical Thinking." Scholars from Asia and Africa comment on his position in the light of their own ideas of the sense and meaning of historical thinking. The volume is rounded off by Peter Burke's comments on the questions and issues raised by the authors and his suggestions for the way forward towards a common ground for intercultural communication.

Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

Jörn Rüsen is a German historian and cultural theorist.
He was Professor of Modern History at the Universities of Bochum and Bielefeld for many years. From 1994 to 1997 he was the Executive Director of the Zentrums für interdisziplinäre Forschung (ZiF) (Center for Interdisciplinary Study) of the University of Bielefeld.
Between 1997 and 2007 he was President of the Kulturwissenschaftlichen Instituts (KWI) (Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities) in Essen and Professor for General History and Historical Culture at the University of Witten-Herdecke.