Description: An essential reference guide for the very best writing and thinking on historical theory, and showcases writers from across the full range of theoretical and epistemological standpoints.
Review Quotes: The Sage Handbook of Historical Theory offers us 29 article-length essays on a wide variety of topics written by recognized and respected experts. Most are historians reflecting on their own work and practices, or those of others. They tell us about methods (empirical, scientific, psychoanalytic, digital), schools (The Historical School, Annales), lots of individuals (Collingwood, Hayden White, Derrida, Foucault), applications (social history, gender history). I found these essays satisfying, informative, and, in cases where I was pretty familiar with the subject, quite reliable. This is the sort of book that can be consulted by the scholar again and again as needs and questions arise. To be sure, topics may arise that are not covered here (I thought of Social Darwinism, and environmental history), but the editors of such a collection must be selective and obviously cannot cover everything.--David Carr, Emory University USA