Historians' Autobiographies as Historiographical Inquiry
A Global Perspective

This Element studies historians' autobiographies from a global perspective, containing gender, postcolonial, and trauma experiences.

Jaume Aurell (Author)

9781009539418, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 2 January 2025

84 pages
23.5 x 15.9 x 1.1 cm, 0.28 kg

This Element analyses the autobiographies of historians from a global perspective and looks at all eras, from antiquity to the present day. It includes twenty autobiographies: Caesar's and Lucian of Samosata's memories in antiquity; an autobiography of a medieval king such as Peter IV of Aragon; Vico's, Gibbon's and Adams' intellectual self-accounting in modernity; autobiographical revelations and social activism of twentieth century women historians such as Carolyn Steedman, Jill Conway and Gerda Lerner; classical Chinese and Islamic traditions through the autobiographies of Sima Quian and Ibn Khaldun; the perplexities inherent in the modernisation of Japan (Fukuzawa Yukichi), China (Gu Jiegang), India (Nirad Chaudhuri) and Egypt (Taha Hussein); postmodernists such as Rosenstone; and traumatic postcolonial experiences in Africa (Bethwell Ogot), Latin America (Carlos Eire) and Southeast Asia (Wang Gungwu). This Element proposes a literary and historical approach to these autobiographies, emphasising its historiographical dimension and value.

Introduction
1. Ancient politics
2. Medieval narratives
3. Western rationalities
4. Colonisation perplexities
5. Gender perspectives
6. Postcolonial and postmodern identities
Conclusions.

Subject Areas: History: theory & methods [HBA]