Encounters: Philosophy of History After Postmodernism

Frustrated with the usual methods of scholarly inquiry, Ewa Domanska hit upon the idea of interviewing some of the world’s most original and important theorists and philosophers of history to get at the heart of contemporary understandings of history. The result is Encounters, an exciting collection of these dialogues. So old-fashioned as to seem revolutionary, the interview format allows for a concise presentation of the main ideas of each writer, providing easy access to theories that have shaped modern historiography.

No one book could encompass the vast territory of contemporary historiography, but this text gives us a sense of what underlies some of the most interesting and challenging work in the field. Although Domanska’s interlocutors hold widely divergent views, they agree about which issues are important. Most strikingly, all share the belief that aesthetics, objective reality, and meaning are the most crucial concerns in our understanding of history today. The interviews also address such pressing issues as the relation of history to its modes of presentation, the relation of particular works of history to the notion of history in general, and the personal and civic functions of history. Ewa Domanska’s Encounters offers a unique look into the hearts and minds of today’s most stimulating historical theorists.