That Noble Dream: The 'Objectivity Question' and the American Historical Profession (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780521357456)

The aspiration to relate the past "as it really happened" has been the central goal of American professional historians since the late nineteenth century. In this remarkable history of the profession, Peter Novick shows how the idea and ideal of objectivity was elaborated, challenged, modified, and defended over the past century. Drawing on the unpublished correspondence as well as the published writing of hundreds of American historians, this book is a richly textured account of what American historians have thought they were doing, or ought to be doing, when they wrote history--how their principles influenced their practice and practical exigencies influenced their principles. Published with the support of the Exxon Education Foundation.

Author: Peter Novick
ISBN-10: 0521357454
ISBN-13: 9780521357456
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Language: English
Published: 09/30/1988
Pages: 662
Format: Paperback
Weight: 2.00lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 1.50d