Recent Trends In Historiography

Book excerpt: The Modern Historiography Is Passing Through A Phase Of Enormous Elaboration With Multi-Dimensional Ramifications. The Great Proliferation Of Historical Writings Regrettably Has Not Illuminated Central Themes Of Modern History, Instead Has Woefully Obscured Them. Moreover, Modern Historical Scholarship, An International Enterprise Which It Has Always Been Is Confronted With A Crisis Because On The One Hand There Is Decreasing Relevance Of Spatial Concept Of Culture As The Barriers Are Collapsing, While On The Other, Increasing Alienation Of Man Has Made History Acquire A Kind Of Mythical Character. Gradually Being Abandoned As An Scholarly Enterprise, History For A Futurist Is Only A Marginal Indicator, For Scientist A Backdrop Necessary To Preface His Discoveries, For The Modern Man, It Is A Dead Burden To Be Shed As Early As Possible, For The Man In The Street Just A Myth, For A Historian An In Chartered Journey Into The Past Taking Him Nowhere And Making Him No Wiser, But For An Intellectual History Is A Total Awareness Of Time And Space.Recent Trends In Historiography Offers A General Survey Of Historical Trends Which Have Emerged Prominently In The Second Half Of The 20Th Century. It Explains The Views Of The Founders, Promoters And Critics In A Simple, Lucid And Systematic Manner.