On ‘What is History?’ In this book Keith Jenkins argues that older modernist discussions about the nature of history - including those by Carr and Elton - are now partial and dated guides to contemporary debates. He advocates that they be ‘replaced’ by two other theorists, Richard Rorty and Hayden White. In his introduction and first chapter, Keith Jenkins places Carr, Elton, Rorty and White within current discussions concerning the discourse of history. This ‘contextualisation’ is then followed by four chapters: in the first two Carr and Elton are subjected to radical critique; in the latter Jenkins introduces aspects of the works of Rorty and White, postmodern-type thinkers who in his opinion represent a possible way forward for today’s historiographical concerns. Keith Jenkins’ exploration of Hayden White’s work is particularly significant. For although White has long been recognised as one of the most original history theorists currently writing, his work is actually little read and little understood in many orthodox historical arenas, or by most history students. Jenkins argues that the neglect of White and the general suspicion of ‘theory’ among many historians are issues which need to be urgently addressed. On ‘What is History?’ should enable students to gain insights into and understandings of many current debates with regard to the ‘history question’, insights and understandings that necessarily move us beyond those old introductory favourites, Carr and Elton, into new and vital areas of consideration. Also available from Routledge: Re-thinking History by Keith Jenkins ‘A model of concise argument [that] poses fundamental questions concerning the nature of historiography in a post-modernist world’ A. White, University of East London ‘raises many interesting and important questions’ Teaching History On ‘What is History?’ From Carr and Elton to Rorty and White Keith Jenkins London and New York First published 1995 by Routledge 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005. “To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.” Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001 © 1995 Keith Jenkins All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available 0-203-99381-0 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0-415-09724-X (hbk) ISBN 0-415-09725-8 (pbk) Contents Acknowledgements vii Introduction: history, theory, ideology 1 1 History today 15 2 On Edward Carr 43 3 On Geoffrey Elton 65 4 On Richard Rorty 99 5 On Hayden White 137 Notes 183 Further Reading 199 Index of names 203 For Maureen, Philip and Patrick Acknowledgements I would like to thank Peter Brickley, Richard Brown, Andrew Foster, Keith Grieves, Guy Nelson, Richard Pulley, Geoff Scale and Alan White for their comments on the arguments I have tried to put forward in an introductory way in this book. I have attempted to take on board their critical suggestions whenever possible and those that ‘have not made it’ I have kept gratefully for possible future use. The author and publishers would like to thank the following who have kindly given permission for the use of copyright material: Macmillan Press Limited, for excerpts from E.H.Carr’s What is History?; Cambridge University Press and the Royal Historical Society for excerpts from G.R.Elton’s Return to Essentials; Cambridge University Press and Richard Rorty for excerpts from R. Rorty’s Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity, also Objectivity, Relativism and Truth: Philosophical Papers Volume 7, and Essays on Heidegger and Others: Philosophical Papers Volume II; University of Minnesota Press for excerpts from R.Rorty’s Consequences of Pragmatism; Johns Hopkins University Press for excerpts from Hayden White’s Metahistory, Tropics of Discourse and The Content of Form. Every effort has been made to obtain permission from the publishers of G.R.Elton’s The Practice of History. Any queries about the above should be addressed to Patrick Proctor at Routledge, London. Keith Jenkins, 23 November 1994 viii Introduction: history, theory, ideology This book has been written as something of a sequel to an earlier volume published in 1991 entitled Re-thinking History and, as on that previous occasion, this new work is addressed primarily (though obviously not exclusively) to advanced and undergraduate students and their teachers.1 And I have written it because I think it is necessary to introduce such students—who may well be studying the question of the nature of history in some detail for the first time -to some of the more contentious, polemical and difficult debates which are currently in circulation, and which are arguably determin-ing how this particular discourse is being constituted and considered today. If, however, these comments indicate in only the very briefest of ways who I have written this book for and something of its general purpose, I do not actually want to enlarge on these intentions at this early stage. Rather what I do want to do, is to go on to explain my approach to the question of what is history, how and why I have organised it around the four people whose names appear in the book’s subtitle—Edward Carr, Geoffrey Elton, Richard Rorty and Hayden White—and, more importantly perhaps, why I have put into that subtitle an element of movement, that is, from Carr and Elton to Rorty and White. For, whilst I think that readers will find a good deal of description and exposition in this work, I shall also be running a particular argument throughout its entirety, it being within the ‘movement’ just mentioned that what polemical cutting edge the book has is located. For these two simple words, from and to, carry within them the weight of the thesis I shall be developing in the following pages, my position being (in brief for now) that despite the continued popularity of their texts as ‘essential introductions’ to the ‘history question’ (which is why I have thought it useful to organise this book around individual historians/theorists and not around ‘schools’ or ‘movements’ or ‘concepts’ or whatever)2 I feel that Carr and Elton are no longer