The Idea of History

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The Idea of History is the best-known book of the Oxford philosopher, historian & archeologist R.G. Collingwood. It was originally published posthumously in 1946, having been mainly reconstructed from his manuscripts, many of which are now lost. Preface Introduction. The philosophy of history; History's nature, object, method & value; The problem of parts I-IV 1. Greco-Roman historiography Theocratic history & myth; The creation of scientific history by Herodotus; Anti-historical tendency of Greek thought; Greek conception of history's nature & value; Greek historical method & its limitations; Herodotus & Thucydides; The Hellenistic period; Polybius; Livy & Tacitus; Character of Greco-Roman historiography: humanism; substantialism 2. The influence of Christianity The leaven of Christian ideas; Characteristics of Christian historiography; Medieval historiography; The Renaissance historians; Descartes; Cartesian historiography; Anti-Cartesianism: Vico; Locke, Berkeley & Hume; The Enlightenment; The science of human nature 3. The threshold of scientific history Romanticism; Herder; Kant; Schiller; Fichte; Schelling; Hegel; Hegel & Marx; Positivism 4. Scientific history England; Germany; France; Italy 5. Epilegomena. Human nature & human history; The historical imagination; Historical evidence; History as reenactment of past experience; The subject-matter of history; History & freedom; Progress as created by historical thinking Index