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Clio among the Muses: Essays on History and the Humanities
ISBN: 9781479862528
Platform/Publisher: JSTOR / NYU Press
Digital rights: Users: unlimited; Printing: chapter; Download: chapter
Subjects: History -- Methodology; Historiography; History -- Philosophy; Humanities;

History "stands on the shoulders of its companions in the humanities and social sciences," writes historian Hoffar (The Historian's Paradox ) in this brief but thought-provoking series of essays on the vigor and necessity of historical study. The human experience has always been enlivened and ennobled through combinations of endeavors like precedent-based law, tradition-centered religion, economics, and political science. Hoffar philosophically addresses these intricate and inextricable connections between history and its cohorts in an academic yet readable examination consisting of seven concise, unsentimental essays that use his "synechdochal method" of "using selected parts to represent the whole." Hoffar discusses instances in which historians get their analyses wrong because of faulty methods, or reliance on limited foci, or biased assumptions, especially regarding biographical subjects. While the military history section is of great relevance to contemporary events, the literary section reverts to theory, describing the evolution of "novelistic history" through literature that allows experts to imagine unrecorded reactions to key events. Hoffar successfully argues that no matter the discipline, history remains vital, supported and enriched by these connections much as the mythological Clio was linked to each of her fellow Greek muses. (Dec.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.