Faces of History: Historical Inquiry from Herodotus to Herder

by Donald R. Kelley

In this book, one of the world’s leading intellectual historians offers a critical survey of Western historical thought and writing from the pre-classical era to the late eighteenth century. Donald R. Kelley focuses on persistent themes and methodology, including questions of myth, national origins, chronology, language, literary forms, rhetoric, translation, historical method and criticism, theory and practice of interpretation, cultural studies, philosophy of history, and "historicism."

Kelley begins by analyzing the dual tradition established by the foundational works of Greek historiography―Herodotus’s broad cultural and antiquarian inquiry and the contrasting model of Thucydides’ contemporary political and analytical narrative. He then examines the many variations on and departures from these themes produced in writings from Greek, Roman, Jewish, and Christian antiquity, in medieval chronicles, in national histories and revisions of history during the Renaissance and Reformation, and in the rise of erudite and enlightened history in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Throughout, Kelley discusses how later historians viewed their predecessors, including both supporters and detractors of the authors in question.

The book, which is a companion volume to Kelley’s highly praised anthology Versions of History from Antiquity to the Enlightenment, will be a valuable resource for scholars and students interested in interpretations of the past.

Genres: History

353 pages, Paperback

First published January 11, 1999

Reviews

[Greg · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting survey of the history of history. Being someone who knows very little about historians (or I guess I could say history, but I kind of know somethings about history, but I've never studied it. Like I know that Columbus discovered America, and that the French and Indian War wasn't a war between the French and Indians. And I also know that Canada has no history to speak of, but I know this because I studied Canada in a course called Introduction to Canada, where I learned that the whole nation is quite polite and boring, and they suffer from an inferiority complex, where they don't want to be thought of as American, but yet in the class we learned things like Bryan Adams is a Canadian musician, as if there is really a difference between him and say an American musician singing about guitars and girls and summer, whatever. See I know lots of history so stop fucking bothering me with my admission of not knowing much formally about history, please...), I had no way to really tell if what I was reading was biased, or good, or bad, or right or wrong. It was just like when I read The Rest is Just Noise last year. I found it interesting but I felt at the mercy of the author. Historians aren't nearly as interesting though as 20th century 'serious' music, thus a lower star. And to wrap this review up with a nice little knot, I did learn that like our neighbors to the North, historians have lived with an inferiority complex for two thousand years, but they live in the shadow of philosophy and act like little brats about it every century or so.

[Madeline · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is not well written, Kelley is very unclear about the goals of his writing and what the main themes of his historiographical work are. Although the main structure of the book makes sense, there is no flow in the writing from paragraph to paragraph as the author jumps around unpredictably both chronologically and thematically. He includes unnecessary historical detail, which does not contribute significantly. Kelley gives so much information that it is difficult to tell what is actually important or relevant, and he leaves much interpretation open to the reader. While this does lead to some interesting debates, some form of explicitly expressed purpose from the author would improve the book.

Despite these shortcomings, this book does bring up some important historiographical questions. Kelley addresses the interplay between history and myth, especially concerning the perennial question of origins. He also discusses the development of methodology and source criticism throughout time. This book tracks the development of history and historiography in the western world as it develops from its mythological and poetic origins into the modern 'science of history.'