To give a bit of insight in the way we have attributed keywords to the publicatoins, we have developed a glossary. This glossary has been designed solely with the purpose to explain the usage of terms. Also, the terms used in the bibliography are adapted, extended and changed on a regular basis. So this glossary will not explain all the keywords used in the bibliography. The INTH Bibliography consists of works that discuss, describe and analyze the following concepts in a metahistorical perspective:
1. Theory and Philosophy of Historiography
- Classics of Theory and Philosophy of Historiography – Must-reads for anyone interested in the theory and philosophy of historiography.
- Epistemology – On what historical knowledge is, and whether historiography can justify its knowledge claims. E.g.: “Can history produce reliable knowledge?” or “How do historians warrant their claims about the past?”
- causation * – On cause and effect in history.
- counterfactuals – “Alternative History”, “What if… History”
- evidence/proof – On uses of proof and evidence, structures of argumentation, and comparisons to their use in other disciplines.
- explanation – On the way historians explain historical events or matters of fact. [See also: “interpretation/understanding”]
- interpretation/understanding – On the account of events in the past that makes the content understandable and/or plausible. [See also: “explanation”, “hermeneutics.”]
- laws in history * – On general laws in history, Covering Law Model / deductive-nomological model.
- objectivity/subjectivity – On impartiality and biases of the historian, subject/ object distinction [See also: “science, history as”]
- realism/anti-realism * – On the (non)reality of the past. Includes: critical realism, constructivism.
- relativism – On whether historical representation or values depend on the perspectives we take, or whether they are universal and fixed. [See also: “objectivity/subjectivity”]
- representation * – On limits, problems and possibilities of historiographical and popular representations of the past. [See also: “narrativism”]
- revisionism * – On reinterpretation and the constant revision of history.
- science (history and/as) – On whether or not history is a science. Includes: scientific methods, positivism, history of science.
- truth – On whether history can produce a verifiable and true knowledge. [See also: “revisionism”, “relativism”, “evidence/proof”]
- ethics * – On ethical questions concerning the past, history and historiography.
- distance/presence * – On historiographical distance from or proximity to its subject, on temporal distance or presence, metaphysics of presence etc.
- meaning/sense (of history) * – On the meaning to society or individuals of written accounts of the past. Or the meaning, sense, direction and goal of the historical process as a whole, [See also: “representation”, “utopia/ eschatology/ teleology”, “providence/fate”, “religion/theology”]
- values in/of history – On the values the historian brings to his work, also the debates on “What is history for?”, epistemic virtues etc.
- fields of research – Reflexive works on the historical discipline’s fields of research: biography, business history, cultural history, demographic history, economic history, gender history, history of science, history of philosophy, intellectual history/history of ideas, military history, natural history, political history, politics (political history/political theory) *, religion/theology (and history/ history of) *, social history, subaltern history, urban history, world/global/universal history *
- interdisciplinarity – On the historical discipline in dialogue with: anthropology, archeology, art history/aesthetics, biology, geography/space *, fiction/literature (history and) *, literary theory, media and history, political science/political theory, psychoanalysis/psychology, sociology/social science. Or on the value of interdisciplinarity in general.
- methodology – On the general study of method in historical enquiry.
- agency/action * – On the unconscious or purposeful, goal directed activity regarding actions in the past or historians’ actions. The determinacy of structures vs. capacity to act.
- comparative methodology – On historical explanations that compare historical events, or reference to the present day. [See also: sociology/social science]
- digital history – Includes: computers, Internet, electronic/digital age, video games
- oral history – On spoken sources. Includes: methodology, validity.
- quantitative history – On the approach to historical research that makes use of quantitative, statistical and computer tools.
- reenactment * – On historians’ re-enactment of the thoughts of a historical agent. Includes: social activity in which aspects of a historical event are recreated e.g. reenactment of the battle of Waterloo.
- source criticism – On the study of the reliability of the sources used. Includes: authorship, credibility, representativeness and authenticity of sources.
- schools/paradigms
- (neo)positivism – On the view of history as facts that operate according to laws of human behavior. That true knowledge is empirical and verifiable.
- (post)colonial – On colonialism. Includes: historical perspectives of understanding the process of decolonization.
- (post)modernity – On the “modern.” Includes: proponents (and critics) of the postmodern thinking in history.
- (post)structuralism – On the effects of both structuralism and post-structuralism in historical analysis.
- Annales School – On the French historiographical school. [See also: “cultural history”]
- existentialism * – On the individual experience of choice and the absence of rational understanding.
- hermeneutics – On the method of interpretation first of texts, and secondly of the whole social, historical, and psychological world.
- historicism – Includes the different meanings of the term: the general view that historical periods must be understood ‘in their own terms’; the belief in the necessity of historical processes (that are immune to human choice and agency).
- linguistics/discursive turn – On the opacity and figurative character of language, the manner in which reality-effects are created within language.
- narrativism/narratology * – On the structure of explanation used to account for human actions.
- rhetoric – On the tropes, arguments, and other devices of language used to write history and persuade audiences.
- semiotics/semantics – On semiotic and semantic issues of historical work.
- Marxism/historical materialism * – On the Marxist historiographical school. Includes: historical materialism.
- material turn – On the understanding of past material culture.
- microhistory – On the tradition of researching a well defined portion of the past.
- phenomenology – On the method of philosophical investigation whose main proponents are Husserl, Heidegger, Sartre and Merleau-Ponty.
- time/temporality – Time in history and historiography; human relationship with time.
- anachronism – On the act of misplacing concepts in the past.
- chronology – On the recording of and the order in which a series of events happened.
- cyclical/linear * – On the cyclical or linear nature of the passage of time.
- distance/presence * – On historiographical distance from or proximity to its subject, on temporal distance or presence, metaphysics of presence etc.
- historicity * – On the idea that things develop through history: concepts, practices, values.
- periodization * – On the development of historical periods.
- presentism * – On the present time overpowering other temporal categories.
- spectrality * – On the persistence or reappearance of elements of the past in the present.
2. Substantial Philosophy of History [“Speculative”]
- Classics of Substantial Philosophy of History – Must-reads for anyone interested in the philosophy of history (also known as speculative philosophy of history).
- agency/action * – On the unconscious or purposeful, goal directed activity regarding actions in the past or historians’ actions. [See also: “freedom/liberty”]
- civilization(s) – On the view of history as an evolution or description of civilizations. [See also: “evolution”]
- Enlightenment – On the view of history as the record of progress and human perfectibility.
- ethics * – Ethical questions concerning the past, history and historiography.
- evolution – On the view of history as a process of slow change and development [See also: “civilization(s)”, “progress/decline”]
- existentialism * – On the individual experience of choice and the absence of rational understanding.
- freedom/liberty – On individual and collective control their own actions. Includes: Hegelian stages of history. [See also: “agency/action”]
- future/prediction – On the future and the possibility of knowing it [See also: “utopia/ eschatology/ teleology”]
- geography/space * – Space in history and historiography; human relationship with space.
- historical change – Analysis of change in time. [See also: “explanation”; “continuity/discontinuity”]
- idealism – On the tradition that emphasizes the “ideal” character of all phenomena.
- laws in history * – On the existence or not of laws that rule human history. [See also: “agency/action”]
- Marxism/historical materialism * On historical materialism understood as a theory of socioeconomic development. Includes: the Marxist historiographical school.
- meaning/sense (of history) * On the sense of history (Includes the meaning of written accounts of the past)
- metaphysics/ontology – Enquiry that raises questions about reality that lie beyond or behind those capable of being tackled by the methods of science. / The branch of metaphysics that concerns itself with what exists.
- causation * – On cause and effect in history.
- chance/contingency – On whether history occurs by chance. [See also: “providence/ fate”]
- determinism – On whether or not history is determined.
- realism/anti-realism * – On the (non)reality of the past. Includes: critical realism, constructivism.
- structures vs. events – On the format in which history takes place.
- posthistoire/end of history – On the potential end of history.
- progress/decline – On whether later times are improvements over earlier times.
- religion/theology (and history) * – On the connection between history and religion. Includes: history of religion. [See also: “utopia/escathology/teleology”; “secularisation”; “providence/fate”]
- secularization – On the separation between history and religion. [See also: “religion/theology (and history]
- time/temporality – Time in history and historiography; human relationship with time.
- continuity/discontinuity – Question of whether history is solely and evenly continuous, or whether it is marked by age-specific periods.
- cyclical/ linear * – On the cyclical or linear nature of the passage of time.
- historicity * – On the idea that things develop through history: concepts, practices, values.
- periodization * – On the development of historical periods.
- presentism * – On the present time overpowering other temporal categories.
- utopia/eschatology/teleology – On whether final causes and/or an ideal final state exist. [See also: “future/ prediction”; “posthistoire/end of history”]
- world/global/universal history * – On the presentation of the history of humankind as a whole and coherent unit.
3. History outside academia
- critique (history as) – On the study of historiography as a form of historical culture.
- death and mourning – On historiographical approaches on death.
- distance/presence * – On historiographical distance from or proximity to its subject, on temporal distance or presence, metaphysics of presence etc.
- education – Works on the teaching of History, Historiography or Historical Theory.
- ethics* – Ethical questions concerning the past, history and historiography.
- experience – On historical experience.
- heritage – On (non)physical remains of the past. Includes: patrimony. [See also: “public history”]
- historical consciousness – On how people look at the past.
- identity – On how the past affects one’s identity. [See also: “nationalism/nation building”]
- jurisdiction (history and) – On the confluence of law and history. Includes: transitional justice.
- literature/fiction (history and) * – On the connection between history and literature. g.: “Is history a form of literature?”
- memory/forgetting – Theories of memory and forgetting.
- museum/musealization – On displaying the past in museums or the musealization of the world.
- myth – On the connection between history and myth making or myth breaking. [See also: “ideology”; “revisionism”]
- narrativism/narratology * – On the structure of explanation used to account for human actions.
- nostalgia/melancholia – On feelings towards the past.
- politics (political history/political theory) – Political questions concerning the past, history and historiography.
- (ab)uses of history – Cases of suppression, manipulation, and deception, as well as the different political uses of history.
- ideology – A coherent set of socially produced ideas that create a group consciousness.
- nationalism/nation building – On the past‘s and history’s influence in shaping nations.
- revisionism * – On reinterpretation and the constant revision of history.
- providence/fate – On the principle or determining cause by which things in general are believed to come to be.
- public history – The many ways in which historians recreate and present history to the public.
- reenactment * – On the social activity in which aspects of a historical event are recreated. Includes: historians’ re-enactment of the thoughts of a historical agent.
- religion/theology (and history) * – On the connection between history and religion. Includes: history of religion. [See also: “utopia/escathology/teleology”; “secularisation”; “providence/fate”]
- representation * – Debate on the historiographical representation of the past.
- spectrality * – On the persistence or reappearance of elements of the past in the present.
- testimony/witnesses – On testimonies and witnessing the past. [See also: “jurisdiction (history and)”; “memory/forgetting”; “oral history”; “trauma”]
- trauma – On trauma formation and relation with the past. [See also: “memory/forgetting”; “testimony/witnesses”; “violence/genocide”]
- violence/genocide – On the effects of extreme violence and genocide in the past. Includes: Holocaust. [See also: “jurisdiction (history and)”; “trauma”]
4. Histories and Geographies of Historiography & Historical Consciousness
- Ancient historiography and historical consciousness
- medieval historiography and historical consciousness
- Renaissance historiography and historical consciousness
- Early Modern historiography and historical consciousness
- Modern historiography and historical consciousness
- contemporary historiography and historical consciousness
- African
- Asian
- Eastern European
- Latin American
- Middle Eastern
- Western
- anthologies/ introductions/readers – Collected articles or works intended for use in teaching historical theory or philosophy of history.
- Bibliographies – Lists of texts relevant to the theory and philosophy of history.
