Herbert Butterfield and the Interpretation of History [Hardcover]

This book examines successive stages in the development of the thought of Sir Herbert Butterfield in relation to fundamental issues in the science of history. In a carefully nuanced way it lays bare the unspoken motivations and hidden tensions in Butterfield's debate with himself and with a host of contemporary historians in the period between 1924-79.Acknowledgements Abbreviations Introduction The Romantic Imagination Butterfield's Critique of the Whig Interpretation Butterfield's Critique of Acton Machiavelli and the English Tradition Expository Historiography Providence Technical History Butterfield's Critique of Interpretations The Three Ways or Levels of History The Wiles Lectures Butterfield's Critique of Namier Challenges and Resolutions Conclusions Notes Works by Herbert Butterfield General Bibliography Index

'...intensely relevant to reflection about the historical discipline and the humanities in general... It deftly handles the twists and turns in Butterfield's emerging overall conception' - Professor Harry Van Dyke, Redeemer University College, Ontario, Canada

KEITH SEWELL was born in London in 1944. Since 1969 he has lived in Australia or New Zealand. He has taught history for Deakin University and Presbyterian Ladies' College, Victoria, Australia. He moved to the USA in 1998 and is currently Professor of History at Dordt College, Sioux Center, Iowa. He is married with two sons.