Peter Burke – författare

With its innovative format, Debating New Approaches to History addresses issues currently at the top of the discipline’s theoretical and methodological agenda. In its chapters, leading historians of both older and younger generations from across the Western world and beyond discuss and debate the main problems and challenges that historians are facing today. Each chapter is followed by a critical commentary from another key scholar in the field and the author’s response.The volume looks at topics such as the importance and consequences of the ‘digital turn’ in history (what will history writing be like in a digital age?), the challenge of posthumanist theory for history writing (how do we write the history of non-humans?) and the possibilities of moving beyond traditional sources in history and establishing a dialogue with genetics and neurosciences (what are the perspectives and limits of the so-called ‘neurohistory’?). It also revisits older debates in history which remain crucial, such as what the gender approach can offer to historical research or how to write history on a global scale.Debating New Approaches to History does not just provide a useful overview of the new approaches to history it covers, but also offers insights into current historical debates and the process of historical method in the making. It demonstrates how the discipline of history has responded to challenges in society – such as digitalization, globalization and environmental concerns – as well as in humanities and social sciences, such as the ‘material turn’, ‘visual turn’ or ‘affective turn’. This is a key volume for all students of historiography wanting to keep their finger on the pulse of contemporary thinking in historical research.

What is Cultural History? has established itself as an essential guide to what cultural historians do and how they do it. Now fully updated in its third edition, leading historian Peter Burke offers afresh his accessible account of the past, present and future of cultural history, as it has been practised not only in the English-speaking world, but also in Continental Europe, Asia, South America and elsewhere.Burke begins by discussing the ‘classic’ phase of cultural history, associated with Jacob Burckhardt and Johan Huizinga, and the Marxist reaction to it, from Frederick Antal to Edward Thompson. He then charts the rise of cultural history in more recent times, concentrating on the work of the last generation, often described as the ‘New Cultural History’. He places cultural history in its own cultural context, noting links between new approaches to historical thought and writing and the rise of feminism, postcolonial studies and an everyday discourse in which the idea of culture plays an increasingly important part. The new edition also surveys the latest developments in the field and considers the directions that cultural history has been taking in the twenty-first century and may take in the future.This landmark book will continue to be essential reading for students of history, anthropology, cultural studies and literary studies.

"A fascinating catalogue of the conditions and agency of ignorance"—Jeffrey Collins, Times Literary Supplement"A declaration of love for education"—Stefan Bauer, History Today"Dazzling . . . a deliciously knowledgeable history of ignorance"—David ArmitageA rich, wide-ranging history of ignorance in all its forms, from antiquity to the present day  Throughout history, every age has thought of itself as more knowledgeable than the last. Renaissance humanists viewed the Middle Ages as an era of darkness, Enlightenment thinkers tried to sweep superstition away with reason, the modern welfare state sought to slay the “giant” of ignorance, and in today’s hyperconnected world seemingly limitless information is available on demand. But what about the knowledge lost over the centuries? Are we really any less ignorant than our ancestors?  In this highly original account, Peter Burke examines the long history of humanity’s ignorance across religion and science, war and politics, business and catastrophes. Burke reveals remarkable stories of the many forms of ignorance—genuine or feigned, conscious and unconscious—from the willful politicians who redrew Europe’s borders in 1919 to the politics of whistleblowing and climate change denial. The result is a lively exploration of human knowledge across the ages, and the importance of recognizing its limits.

I sin Renässansen - en introduktion gör Peter Burke upp med denna mäktiga myt. Burckhardts misstag var att han alltför okritiskt tog fasta på den bild periodens lärda och konstnärer hade av sig själva. Modern historievetenskap, framför allt medeltidsforskingen, har underminerat denna 1800-talsbild av renässansen. Burke urskiljer två huvudtyper av argument: Dels var de så kallade »renässansmänniskorna» till sin karaktär mer medeltida än man föreställt sig, dels kan man egentligen inte urskilja en enda renässans, begreppet bör användas i pluralis. Det fanns åtskilliga »renässanser» under medeltiden. Vad leder då detta till? frågar sig Peter Burke. Fanns det över huvud taget en renässans? Om vi beskriver »renässansen» i purpur och guld, som ett isolerat kulturellt mirakel eller som ett plötsligt utbrott av modernitet, då måste svaret bli »nej». Renässansens arkitekter skapade mästerverk, med det gjorde även de gotiska byggmästarna. 1500-talets Italien hade sin Rafael, men 1700-talets Japan hade sin Hokusai. Machiavelli var en tänkare med väldig kraft och originalitet, men det var även den arabiske historikern Ibn Khaldun, som levde i Nordafrika på 1300-talet. Om man dock utan förutfattade meningar om framstegen under medeltiden eller i världen bortom Europa använder sig av termen »renässans» för att peka på en viss grupp av förändringar i den västerländska kulturen, då kan man kanske ändå betrakta detta som ett strukturerande begrepp som vi fortfarande har bruk för. Att i en sådan anda beskriva och tolka denna grupp av förändringar är den uppgift Peter Burke ställer sig i Renässansen - en introduktion.

From Leonardo Da Vinci to Oliver Sacks: the first history of the western polymath, from the Renaissance to the present"An absorbing group portrait and intellectual history."—Kirkus Reviews"An admirable mixture of industry and erudition."—Robert Wilson, Wall Street JournalFrom Leonardo Da Vinci to John Dee and Comenius, from George Eliot to Oliver Sacks and Susan Sontag, polymaths have moved the frontiers of knowledge in countless ways. But history can be unkind to scholars with such encyclopedic interests. All too often these individuals are remembered for just one part of their valuable achievements.In this engaging, erudite account, renowned cultural historian Peter Burke argues for a more rounded view. Identifying 500 western polymaths, Burke explores their wide-ranging successes and shows how their rise matched a rapid growth of knowledge in the age of the invention of printing, the discovery of the New World and the Scientific Revolution. It is only more recently that the further acceleration of knowledge has led to increased specialization and to an environment that is less supportive of wide-ranging scholars and scientists.Spanning the Renaissance to the present day, Burke changes our understanding of this remarkable intellectual species.

One of the major intellectual debates inside and outside the historical profession at the beginning of the new century concerns the status of accounts of the past. Can historians tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth? Do they discover or invent, construct or reconstruct the objects they study? This volume provides a collective reflection by historians, as a contribution to the debates about knowledge in the 'postmodern' age.This discussion resembles one that was in progress a hundred years ago - is history a science (as Bury claimed) or an art (as Trevelyan asserted)? The recent debate has been particularly lively in France and in the USA. It is therefore appropriate that a group of historians from Britain should now engage with this subject, in one of a series of volumes celebrating the British Academy's own centenary in 2002.The essays present a historical and critical overview of historical thought and writing since 1900, focusing on selected major topics - whether periods (such as the Middle Ages), regions (such as 'the Orient'), disciplines (art history, historiography, historical demography), or themes (nation, class, disease, gender).This challenging volume will intrigue anyone interested in the process of history writing.

Sir Keith Thomas is one of the most innovative and influential of English historians, and a scholar of unusual range. These essays, presented to him on his retirement as President of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, concentrate on one of the broad themes illuminated by his work - changing notions of civility in the past. From the sixteenth century onwards, civility was a term applied to modes of behaviour as well as to cultural and civic attributes. Its influence extended from styles of language and sexual mores to funeral ceremonies and commercial morality. It was used to distinguish the civil from the barbarous and the English from the Irish and Welsh, and to banish superstition and justify imperialism. The contributors - distinguished historians who have been Keith Thomas's pupils - illustrate the many implications of civility in the early modern period and its shifts of meaning down to the twentieth century.

Louis XIV was a man like any other, but the money and attention lavished on his public image by the French government transformed him into a godlike figure. In this engrossing book, an internationally respected historian gives an account of contemporary representations of Louis XIV and shows how the making of the royal image illuminates the relationship between art and power.  Images of Louis XIV included hundreds of oil paintings and engravings, three-hundred-odd medals struck to commemorate the major events of the reign, sculptures, and bronzes, as well as plays, ballets (in which the king himself sometimes appeared on stage), operas, odes, sermons, official newspapers and histories, fireworks, fountains, and tapestries. Drawing on an analysis of these representations as well as on surviving documentary sources, Peter Burke shows the conscious attempt to "invent" the image of the king and reveals how the supervision of the royal image was entrusted to a commitee, the so-called small academy. This book is not only a fascinating chronological study of the mechanics of the image-making of a king over the course of a seventy-year reign but is also an investigation into the genre of cultural construction. Burke discusses the element of propaganda implicit in image-making, the manipulation of seventeenth-century media of communication (oral, visual, and textual) and their codes (literary and artistic), and the intended audience and its response. He concludes by comparing and contrasting Louis's public image with that of other rulers ranging from Augustus to contemporary American presidents.

In this study Peter Burke distances himself from the traditional interpretation of the Renaissance as essentially Italian, self-consciously modern and easily separable from the Middle Ages. He emphasises the survival of medieval traditions and the process of the creative adaptation of classical forms and values to their new cultural and social contexts in Italy and elsewhere in Europe. The story is carried down to the seventeenth century and the diffusion and disintegration of what had once been a coherent movement. Illustrated with black and white plates, this edition has been updated throughout to take account of recent scholarship, has a fully revised bibliography and will provide the student with a stimulating introduction to the subject.

In 1929 two French historians, Lucien Febvre and Marc Bloch, founded Annales, a historical journal which rapidly became one of the most influential in the world. They believed that economic history, social history and the history of ideas were as important as political history, and that historians should not be narrow specialists but should learn from their colleagues in the social sciences. Two of the most distinguished French members of the Annales school are represented in this volume - Fernand Braudel and Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie - the core of which is the debate on the Price Revolution of the sixteenth century dealt with by Cipolla, Chabert, Hoszowski and Verlinden. Within the volume, all the contributions are oriented towards Europe in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and all are concerned with long-term changes, and with the relation between economic growth and social change. It includes articles on the European movement of expansion discussed by Malowist and the activities of the Hungarian nobles as entrepreneurs discussed by Pach, and two articles on wider issues: Le Roy Ladurie on the history of climate, and Braudel, summing up the Annales programme, on the relation between history and the social sciences. This classic text was first published in 1972.

In 1929 two French historians, Lucien Febvre and Marc Bloch, founded Annales, a historical journal which rapidly became one of the most influential in the world. They believed that economic history, social history and the history of ideas were as important as political history, and that historians should not be narrow specialists but should learn from their colleagues in the social sciences. Two of the most distinguished French members of the Annales school are represented in this volume - Fernand Braudel and Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie - the core of which is the debate on the Price Revolution of the sixteenth century dealt with by Cipolla, Chabert, Hoszowski and Verlinden. Within the volume, all the contributions are oriented towards Europe in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and all are concerned with long-term changes, and with the relation between economic growth and social change. It includes articles on the European movement of expansion discussed by Malowist and the activities of the Hungarian nobles as entrepreneurs discussed by Pach, and two articles on wider issues: Le Roy Ladurie on the history of climate, and Braudel, summing up the Annales programme, on the relation between history and the social sciences. This classic text was first published in 1972.

Based on archival material from the cities of Genoa, Milan, Venice, Florence, Rome, and Naples, as well as on published sources, such as travel journals, and artistic representations, this volume presents an original view of the culture of early modern Italy. The book addresses particular themes - specifically those of perception and communication - as well as serving to exemplify modes of analysis in the currently developing field of historical anthropology. In the first part of the book, Peter Burke examines the stereotyped ways in which contemporaries perceived social groups such as saints, beggars, and working women, and shows how these stereotypes were used, consciously and unconsciously, both by the authorities and by ordinary people.

Based on intensive fieldwork in an urban American junior high school, this original study explores the relationship between oral and written texts in everyday life by analysing tellings and retellings of local events, diaries, writings and discussions.

This groundbreaking 2007 volume gathers an international team of historians to present the practice of translation as part of cultural history. Although translation is central to the transmission of ideas, the history of translation has generally been neglected by historians, who have left it to specialists in literature and language. This book seeks to achieve an understanding of the contribution of translation to the spread of information in early modern Europe. It focuses on non-fiction: the translation of books on religion, history, politics and especially on science, or 'natural philosophy', as it was generally known at this time. The chapters cover a wide range of languages, including Latin, Greek, Russian, Turkish and Chinese. The book will appeal to scholars and students of the early modern and later periods, to historians of science and of religion, as well as to anyone interested in translation studies.

In the last few years, social historians have discovered what might be called the 'linguistic dimension' of their discipline, just as sociolinguists have been discovering the 'historical dimension' and historians of language the 'social dimension'. They have become interested in language both as a source for social history and also as a historical phenomenon in its own right. This volume of essays brings together some of this recent work by social historians of Britain, France and Italy from the sixteenth to the twentieth century. The authors concern themselves with the politics as well as the sociology of language; with dialect as well as standard languages; with writing as well as speech; with the language of women as well as that of men; with the language of politeness and the language of insult; the language of deference and the language of revolt; the language of sub-cultures and counter-cultures as well as those of the elites and 'the people'.

Based on archival material from the cities of Genoa, Milan, Venice, Florence, Rome, and Naples, as well as on published sources, such as travel journals, and artistic representations, this volume presents an original view of the culture of early modern Italy. The book addresses particular themes - specifically those of perception and communication - as well as serving to exemplify modes of analysis in the currently developing field of historical anthropology. In the first part of the book, Peter Burke examines the stereotyped ways in which contemporaries perceived social groups such as saints, beggars, and working women, and shows how these stereotypes were used, consciously and unconsciously, both by the authorities and by ordinary people.

Based on intensive fieldwork in an urban American junior high school, this original study explores the relationship between oral and written texts in everyday life by analysing tellings and retellings of local events, diaries, writings and discussions.

Despite its written literature, ancient Greece was in many ways an oral society. This is the first serious attempt to study the implications of this view. Dr Thomas stresses the coexistence of literacy and oral tradition in Greece and examines their character and interaction. Concentrating on the plentiful evidence from Classical Athens, she shows how the use of writing developed only gradually and under the influence of the previous oral communication. Drawing on anthropological discussion, the author isolates different types of Athenian oral tradition, building up a picture of Athens' traditions about its past and examining why they changed and disappeared. This study provides crucial insights into the methods and achievements of the Greek historians. It also has major implications for the interpretation of ancient literacy.

In this magisterial study, Peter Burke explores the social and cultural history of the languages spoken or written in Europe between the invention of printing and the French Revolution, arguing that, from a linguistic point of view, 1450 to 1789 should be regarded as a distinct period. One major theme of the book is the relation between languages and communities (regions, churches, occupations and genders as well as nations) and the place of language as a way of identifying others as well as a symbol of one's own identity. A second, linked theme is that of competition: between Latin and the vernaculars, between different vernaculars, dominant and subordinate, and finally between different varieties of the same vernacular, such as standard languages and dialects. Written by one of Europe's leading cultural historians, this book restores the history of the many languages of Europe in a large variety of contexts.

In this magisterial study, Peter Burke explores the social and cultural history of the languages spoken or written in Europe between the invention of printing and the French Revolution, arguing that, from a linguistic point of view, 1450 to 1789 should be regarded as a distinct period. One major theme of the book is the relation between languages and communities (regions, churches, occupations and genders as well as nations) and the place of language as a way of identifying others as well as a symbol of one's own identity. A second, linked theme is that of competition: between Latin and the vernaculars, between different vernaculars, dominant and subordinate, and finally between different varieties of the same vernacular, such as standard languages and dialects. Written by one of Europe's leading cultural historians, this book restores the history of the many languages of Europe in a large variety of contexts.

This groundbreaking 2007 volume gathers an international team of historians to present the practice of translation as part of cultural history. Although translation is central to the transmission of ideas, the history of translation has generally been neglected by historians, who have left it to specialists in literature and language. This book seeks to achieve an understanding of the contribution of translation to the spread of information in early modern Europe. It focuses on non-fiction: the translation of books on religion, history, politics and especially on science, or 'natural philosophy', as it was generally known at this time. The chapters cover a wide range of languages, including Latin, Greek, Russian, Turkish and Chinese. The book will appeal to scholars and students of the early modern and later periods, to historians of science and of religion, as well as to anyone interested in translation studies.

Ivan the Terrible has long been a controversial figure. Some historians regard him as a crazed and evil tyrant; while others (especially Soviet scholars of the Stalin period) have viewed him as a progressive and far-sighted statesman. The folklore about Ivan has played an important part in these debates. Was Ivan's depiction in folklore favourable or hostile? And how far can it be regarded as evidence of contemporary popular attitudes towards the tsar? In this unusual and far-ranging study, Maureen Perrie discusses the nature of Ivan's image in Russian folklore; its historical basis; its development; and the controversies which have surrounded it in pre-revolutionary and Soviet Russian scholarship. She argues that Ivan was in general portrayed in folklore in a positive light, but that this image does not necessarily reflect sixteenth-century views.

This is a fascinating account of the geography, chronology and sociology of one of the major cultural movements in European history.

An innovative and wide ranging collection of original essays by today's leading social theorists aiming to clarify the current uses being made of philosophical ideas in the creation of social thought.

'Joe is Joe, a different label is not going to make him suddenly think he is someone else' (Joe's Mum) Quotations like this about five year old Joe are used to illustrate this text, which draws on the experience of learning disabilities in the family. Peter Burke and Katy Cigno provide helpful definitions and reflect on some preliminary, but important theoretical ideas linking to social exclusion and vulnerability. Drawing on research and experience, different aspects of family lives are illustrated in all their diversity. The implications of stressful times, major upheavals and transitions for family members are examined in detail, indicating when help from professionals should be readily available.Learning Disabilities in Children introduces the theory relating to learning disabilities from the family perspective, and includes an examination of support systems for parents, caregivers and siblings. The authors emphasize why contact from service providers is necessary, particularly those based in health, education and welfare agencies. In addition, the need to give power to children and families as a multi-agency responsibility is addressed, with the aim of promoting positive practice in the professional sector for the benefit of the children involved.Learning Disabilities in Children is a useful resource for postgraduates specializing in child welfare, social work and community care. It will also be of interest to social workers, community caregivers, healthcare professionals and teachers, as well as to families where there is a child with learning disabilities.Key features:*Based on the experience of families with children who have learning disabilities*A practical guide for professionals and care givers seeking to clarify and understand family needs*Explains how a more inclusive partnership between children, their families and professionals may be achieved*Includes a chapter on child development*Provides a unifying framework for working in the complex field of childhood learning disabilities. Learning Disabilities in Children is a useful resource for postgraduates specializing in child welfare, social work and community care. It will also be of interest to social workers, community caregivers, healthcare professionals and teachers, and families where there is a child with learning disabilities.

This book provides a critical history of the movement associated with the journal Annales, from its foundation in 1929 to the present. Burke argues that this movement has been the single most important force in the development of what is sometimes called the 'new history'. Burke distinguishes three main generations in the development of the Annales School. The first generation included Lucien Febvre and Marc Bloch, who fought against the old historical establishment and founded the journal Annales. The second generation was dominated by Braudel, whose magnificent work on the Mediterranean has became a modern classic. The third generation includes well-known contemporary historians such as Duby, Le Goff and Le Roy Ladurie.Wide-ranging and yet concise, this is an accessible examination of one of the most important historical movements of the twentieth century.

This book aims to understand the different readings of Castiglione's Cortegiano or Book of the Courtier from the Renaissance to the twentieth century.

The Art of Conversation is a major contribution to the social history of language - a relatively new field which has become the focus of lively interdisciplinary debate in recent years. Drawing on the work of sociolinguists and others, Burke uses their concept while reserving the right to qualify their theories where the historical record makes this seem appropriate. Like the sociolinguists, Burke in concerned with the way language varies according to who is communicating to whom, on what occasion, in what medium and on what topic. Unlike many sociolinguists, Burke adds a historical dimension, treating language as an inseparable part of social history.This approach is outlined and justified in the first chapter and then exemplified in the remaining four, which deal with the early modern period. Among the topics discussed are the changing role of Latin, which is shown to be very much alive in the age of its alleged decline; language and identity in Italy, a politically divided region at the time but one where educated elites had a common language; the art of conversation, in other words the advice on speaking in polite company offered in hundreds of treaties of the period; and silence, viewed as an act of communication with a significance which changes over time and varies according to the setting and the persons who are silent.The Art of Conversation will be of great interest to students and scholars in social and cultural history, linguistics, the sociology of language and the ethnography of communication.