History

Jörn Rüsen was Professor of Modern History at Universities Bochum and Bielefeld for many years. From 1994 to 1997 he was Director of the Center for Interdisciplinary Research (ZiF) at Bielefeld. Since 1997 he has been President of the Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities Essen (Kulturwissenschaftliches Institut). He specialises in theory and methodology of historical sciences, the history of historiography, intercultural aspects of historical thinking, theory of historical learning, and the history of human rights.

List of Tables and Figures

Preface



Introduction: How to Understand Historical Thinking



PART I: NARRATION



Chapter 1. Historical Narration: Foundation, Types, Reason

Chapter 2. Narrative Competence: The Ontogeny of Historical and Moral Consciousness

Chapter 3. Rhetoric and Aesthetics of History: Leopold von Ranke

Chapter 4. Narrativity and Objectivity in Historical Studies



PART II: INTERPRETATION



Chapter 5. What is Historical Theory?

Chapter 6. New History: Paradigms of Interpretation

Chapter 7. Theoretical Approaches to an Intercultural Comparison of Historiography

Chapter 8. Loosening the Order of History: Modernity, Postmodernity, Memory



PART III: ORIENTATION



Chapter 9. Historical Thinking as Trauerarbeit: Burckhardt’s Answer to a Question of our Time

Chapter 10. Historizing Nazi-Time: Metahistorical Reflections on the Debate Between Friedländer and Broszat

Chapter 11. Holocaust-Memory and German Identity



Bibliography

Index