Choice Outstanding Academic Title 2023 What are the humanities? As the cluster of disciplines historically grouped together as “humanities” has grown and diversified to include media studies and digital studies alongside philosophy, art history and musicology to name a few, the need to clearly define the field is pertinent. Herman Paul leads a stellar line-up of esteemed and early-career scholars to provide an overview of the themes, questions and methods that are central to current research on the history of the nineteenth- and twentieth-century humanities. This exciting addition to the successful Writing History series will draw from a wide range of case-studies from diverse fields, as classical philology, art history, and Biblical studies, to provide a state-of-the-art overview of the field. In doing so, this ground-breaking book challenges the rigid distinctions between disciplines and show the variety of prisms through which historians of the humanities study the past.
Choice Outstanding Academic Title 2023 What are the humanities? As the cluster of disciplines historically grouped together as “humanities” has grown and diversified to include media studies and digital studies alongside philosophy, art history and musicology to name a few, the need to clearly define the field is pertinent. Herman Paul leads a stellar line-up of esteemed and early-career scholars to provide an overview of the themes, questions and methods that are central to current research on the history of the nineteenth- and twentieth-century humanities. This exciting addition to the successful Writing History series will draw from a wide range of case-studies from diverse fields, as classical philology, art history, and Biblical studies, to provide a state-of-the-art overview of the field. In doing so, this ground-breaking book challenges the rigid distinctions between disciplines and show the variety of prisms through which historians of the humanities study the past.
Preface
List of Illustrations
List of Tables
List of Contributors
Introduction: What Is the History of the Humanities?, Herman Paul
(Leiden University, The Netherlands)
Part I: Definitions and Backgrounds
1. What Are the Humanities? A Short History of Concepts and
Classifications, Fabian Krämer (University of Munich, Germany)
2. From Philology to the Humanities: Fragmentation and Discipline
Formation in the United Kingdom and United States, James Turner
(University of Notre Dame, USA)
3. The Humanities in Crisis: Comparative Perspectives on a
Recurring Motif, Hampus Östh Gustafsson (Uppsala University,
Sweden)
Part II: Research Practices
4. Modernizing the Comparative Method: Marx and Darwin, Devin
Griffiths (University of Southern California, USA)
5. Language and the Mapping of the World: Nineteenth-Century
Linguistics in Relation to Ethnology and Geography, Floris
Solleveld (KU Leuven, Belgium)
6. “Big”-ness in Action: Notes from a Lexicon, Christian Bradley
Flow (Mississippi State University, USA)
7. Oral History and the (Digital) Humanities, Julianne Nyhan and
Andrew Flinn (both University College London, UK)
Part III: Values and Virtues
8. Practical Learning: The Transnational Career of an Epistemic
Value in Japan, Michael Facius (University of Tokyo, Japan)
9. An Ethos of Criticism: Virtues and Vices in Nineteenth-Century
Strasbourg, Herman Paul (Leiden University, The Netherlands)
10. Producing the Masculine Scholar: Europe in the Nineteenth and
Twentieth Centuries, Falko Schnicke (Johannes Kepler University,
Linz, Austria)
11. Scholarly Activism in Africa: The General History of Africa
(1964–98), Larissa Schulte Nordholt (Leiden University, The
Netherlands)
Part IV: Teaching Practices
12. The Humanities in the Vocational University: On the Unity of
Teaching and Research, Kasper Risbjerg Eskildsen (Roskilde
University, Denmark)
13. On the Purpose of Humanities Education: A Historical
Perspective from the Mid-Twentieth-Century United States, Claire
Rydell Arcenas (University of Montana, USA)
Part V: Visions of the Future
14. A Postcritical Turn? Unravelling the Meaning of “Post” and
“Turn”, Herman Paul (Leiden University, The Netherlands)
15. Environmental Humanities: Entangled Interdisciplinarity,
Kristine Steenbergh (Vrije University Amsterdam, The
Netherlands)
16. Humanities across Time and Space: Four Challenges for a New
Discipline, Rens Bod (University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands)
Glossary
Index
This volume provides an accessible introduction to the history of humanities by leading scholars in the field.
Herman Paul is Professor of the History of the Humanities at Leiden University, The Netherlands.
Globally, the Humanities are in trouble and only a thorough grasp
of their history can give us the knowledge we need to deal with the
situation. That’s why this timely book is, beyond all hype, so
exciting and rewarding. Herman Paul’s exhilarating introduction
establishes the terms for a comprehensive historical understanding
of the humanities and the essays that he has chosen illuminate not
just the past but the present too. Essential reading.
*Simon During, Professor of English, University of Melbourne,
Australia*
The history of the humanities is a new field but a remarkably
dynamic one. Herman Paul has assembled an outstanding international
team to produce a book that both provides an accessible
introduction to the field and showcases some of the most innovative
work it is producing.
*Stuart Jones, Professor of Intellectual History, University of
Manchester, UK*
This collection serves as a prescriptive ... guide to the current
status of the history of humanities ... [T]his is a timely addition
to modern research on a topic immense significance for many areas
of study.
*CHOICE*
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