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An essay is presented on the concept of cultural turn in the methodology of the study of history as of June 2012. The author traces the history of the phrase and dates its emergence to the 1980s and the 1990s and presents examples of its use in essays that appeared in several scholarly periodicals gleaned from research in the online archiving system known as JSTOR. The author attempts to show the etymological process by which the cultural turn entered historical discourse.

What is east European about east European history, and what is historical about east European studies? Some twenty historians from the United States and Canada gathered at the History Department at Stanford to discuss the present, past, and, most importantly, the future of the east European field, broadly defined. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Examining trends in research publications can yield an appreciation of where a discipline is moving and of its core intellectual orientations, specific and general subject interests, and disciplinary contours. This discussion considers the major contours of academic history publication as reviewed by the flagship generalist journal American Historical Review (AHR). The AHR's topical indexes for the years 2000-2009 were used to gather essential data from which salient disciplinary features could be examined in order to situate academic history's scholarly preoccupations. Various constellations of specialization, focused emphases, and general contours of intellectual activity emerged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the historiography of psychology in Italy in the early 21st century. Reforms in Italian university administration and curriculum are discussed, as are activities in historical-psychological research centered on the universities of Sapienza, Bari, Milan-Bicocca, and Urbino. Trends in historiographical method are discussed, including the use of historiometry and trends away from a traditional history of ideas and toward a more critical "multifactorial" social and institutional history.

Postmodernism offers a new appreciation of the complex interplay between history and the historical memory or consciousness of individuals, groups, and societies as filtered through oral transmission, fiction, and the media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses how to improve secondary school instruction by expressing the importance of historiography to prospective teachers. The author argues that high-school history courses are fact-centered and do not promote an understanding of history as a discipline. The Content Specialty Test in New York is mentioned and the author argues that the test does not measure a person's ability to apply key historical concepts. The author also details several assignments she gives to her students including one in which she allows her students to use only archival primary sources.

The article describes a group assignment to describe and analyze how particular historical themes or periods such as the Middle Ages are used in different contexts in contemporary society. Other themes and periods include Vikings, pirates, botanist Carl Linnaeus, World War II, and communism. The author discusses student presentations and a theoretical model and typology developed by historian Klas-Göran Karlsson. Other topics include commercial aspects of mythic history, tourism and local identity, and the political uses of history.

The article discusses the use of interdisciplinary subjects in the study of world history. It describes the value of incorporating economics and comparative sociology in the historiography of global history, the effect of technology and globalization on the study of history, and the use of historical data and scholarly deliberative networks in the study of history. Other subjects under discussion include the study of intellectual history, the rise of Western scholarship and its relation to Eastern scholarship, and the methods employed to interpret historical chronology and periodization.

An essay is presented that discusses the study and teaching of global history. It describes the historiographical principles and methods associated with the study of world history, the scholarly process and debates associated with defining world history, and the teaching and researching of the discipline. The relation between Eastern historiographies and Western historiographies is also explored.

The article discusses how to define American Jewish history, and how it relates to the larger field of U.S. history. Two approaches to American Jewish history are defined: the "communalist" approach emphasizes Jewish organizations and institutions and the activities of people with an active Jewish identity, while the "dispersionist" approach studies the lives of members of the Jewish diaspora independently of their personal involvement with Judaism or "Jewishness." Also discussed is the concept of "post-Jewishness," and the related "postethnic" concept.

The article responds to a preceding essay by Thomas W. Zeiler on the state of U.S. diplomatic history as a field, and its re-entry into the mainstream of historical study through an increased focus on international history, or the study of the United States in the global context. The author takes issue with Zeiler's wish to retain the state and state power as topics of central relevance for the study of diplomatic history; she argues that power and the state have never been a focus only of diplomatic history, and that furthermore, foreign relations scholarship has explored important areas not shaped by state power.

The article responds to a preceding essay by Thomas W. Zeiler on the state of U.S. diplomatic history as a field, and its re-entry into the mainstream of historical study through an increased focus on international history, or the study of the United States in the global context. The author takes issue with Zeiler's focus on the centrality of the state and state power, and with the idea that diplomatic historians have led their own field back to the mainstream. She argues that in many ways they were pushed by other subdisciplines, such as ethnic, postcolonial, borderlands, transnational, and world history.

The article responds to a preceding essay by Thomas W. Zeiler on the state of U.S. diplomatic history as a field, and its re-entry into the mainstream of historical study through an increased focus on international history, or the study of the United States in the global context. The author finds Zeiler overly optimistic about these developments and discusses three potential risks that they raise: the return of a belief in American exceptionalism among U.S. diplomatic historians; methodological difficulties raised by trends in transnational research; and related difficulties in producing genuine historical syntheses.

The article responds to the preceding essay by Thomas W. Zeiler on the state of U.S. diplomatic history as a field, and its re-entry into the mainstream of historical study through an increased focus on international history, or the study of the United States in the global context. The author argues for not allowing the field to go out of balance in the opposite direction, through too much focus on international politics at the expense of U.S. domestic affairs. He argues for the importance of U.S. policy and politics, using the history of the Vietnam War as an example.

The article discusses the transnationalization or internationalization of historical writing, with historians from different countries cooperating and collaborating with increasing ease and frequency. In particular, the article traces this trend among American historians, examining their interest in world or global history, exploring patterns in American historiography of situating the United States in a global context, and also discussing contrary trends among historians whose focus is exclusively national.

This is an overview of the development of China's world history studies from the second ha If of the nineteenth century to the present. By reexamining their own past, the authors list the bitter experience of the discipline of Chinese history as a whole in the twentieth century. While earlier Chinese scholars, who finished their studies in the West and returned to China in the 1930s and 1940s, made great efforts to establish a very good foundation for China's world history research and education, such a foundation was brutally replaced by the leftist Stalinist dogma of the 1950s. The infamous Cultural Revolution through the 1960s and 1970s caused even more damage. It was not until after China's opening up and reform started in the late 1970s that the discipline of history in China finally saw any hope of healthy development. The authors summarize the gains and losses during the last century in almost every aspect of their research, touching on numerous topics involving world history studies. This self-examination will help readers have a broad view of what happened in China and a better understanding of the current situation in China. As the authors point out, Chinese historians are determined to carry on China's long tradition of world history studies, learn from their counterparts in other countries, and work hard to establish a true Chinese school of historical thinking so as to make a greater contribution to the development of human civilization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of the present text is to investigate the function and the importance of hermeneutics procedures in Dilthey's project, which is focused on basing the sciences of the spirit. Dilthey supports his idea of sciences of the spirit on the notion of experience that is a set and temporary expression of life that understands from itself. There is where hermeneutics acquire importance in Dilthey's project and potentially become an alternative to displacing psychology as the methodological basis of sciences of the spirit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on regional historiography and its methodological models. It traces the development of the discipline in relation to the social sciences and modern historiography and considers the role of territoriality in the study of history. The author describes various methodological approaches including the functional-structuralist model, the Marxist perspective and the French Annales model and reflects on how the crisis of scientific models of the late 20th century influenced the approaches of regional historiography.

The article provides recognition regarding the progress achieved in the studies conducted on medieval religious history as from the 1980s. The author takes into consideration three major points: identification of flaws, which are contextualized and interpreted under their complexities; documented sources and their importance to historiographical studies and, finally, an outline on future research perspectives is offered. Theoretical reflections and examples of concrete challenges in the field of Portuguese religious historiography are described.

The historiography of the Metis has seen considerable changes and development over the last three decades. This paper reviews a generation of research and writing on Metis history from the angle of a participant-observer. After looking retrospectively at the background, context, and results of the 1981 conference on the Metis held at the Newberry Library in Chicago, it offers some thoughts and observations on trends and prospects in Metis studies, notably the growth of family histories that cross and challenge old ethnic and governmental boundaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For decades historians have worked against a backdrop of questions about the nature of their discipline. Since the 1970s this backdrop, influenced by postmodernism, has increasingly been in conflict with their work. Yet relatively few attempts have been made to justify history theoretically. This article attempts to do so in a universally applicable way. It does not directly engage with any particular philosophical critique; rather it attempts to transcend such critiques by redefining history, relocating it from an exclusively professional domain to a wider public one, and relating it to those who ‘enjoy’ it. In order to facilitate this relocation, the concept of ‘free history’– the totality of possible human engagements with the evidence relating to a past event or state of being – is introduced. This allows historical research to be contextualized as the relationship between the public on the one hand and, on the other, those extant objects and texts which can be located at certain points along the central axis of time. In this way, free history highlights the importance of public trust in historians and the crucial role played by objects and texts in limiting the possible re-descriptions of the past. This trust, it is argued, combined with public interest, amounts to a social mandate for historians to explore and write about the past, enabling society to gain a view of itself over time, not just in the mirror of the present moment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This conversation deals with basic issues of historical knowledge, such as the nature of historical reality, the distinction between fact and event, the social function of historical knowledge, and the utility of 'methodology' in the study of history, as understood by Hayden White. It also addresses the problem of distinguishing between methods and conventions in historical research. White presents his idea of a 'progressive history' and advocates 'practical' history over a contemplative approach to the past. He also expresses his views on the ideological aspect of historical studies, the importance of treating the present as history, and the pedagogical as against the 'research' aspect of historiography. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evaluates the different approaches in Russian historiography in the 19th century. Comparison and characteristics of the liberal/Westernizer trend and the conservative/nationalist faction; Role of liberals, reformers, and Westernizers in the historical destinies of the nation; Antithetical assessments of the approaches.

Evaluates the structural defects and methodological confusion in the teaching of national history in secondary schools in Russia. Examination of the historical books written by A. A. Danilov and L. G. Kosulina for year nine and by A. A. Levandovskii and Iu. G. Shchetinov for years ten and eleven of general educational institutions; Advantages of the new history teaching system; Concepts and methodologies in Russian historiography.

Examines the scholarly and judgmental approach to Russian history and historiography. Evaluation of the formational approach in historical methodology; Shortcomings of modern classroom texts; Problems associated with the periodization of Russian twentieth-century history.

Examines the contemporary state of historical education and its disquieting evolutionary trends in Russia. Significance of the historical component of the national mindset and consciousness; Efforts to develop a strategy targeted to strengthening in the masses' perceptions of the past the fundamental supports of historical optimism and historical responsibility and a sense of national worth; Role of historicist thought and action and the important social functions in the individual and society; Analysis of the methodologies in Russian historiography and the implications of the pre-Soviet, Soviet, and post-Soviet variants.

The article presents the manifesto created by the organization History Under Debate, a group of international historians seeking to analyze historiography and the philosophies of history. Some of subjects discussed include: history philosophies such as subjectivism, empiricism, positivism, and poststructuralism; the expansion of interdisciplinary historical studies which extend beyond liberal arts academic fields; the use of the Internet as a companion to traditional academic publishing; and considerations of the methodologies used by historians.