World Government and Empire: The International Historian as Theorist
Author(s)
Hall, Ian
Griffith University Author(s)
Year published
2006
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
International history and International Relations have long been held separate, partly by misunderstanding and partly by mistrust. Three recent books, Marc Trachtenberg's Craft of international history, Paul Kennedy's The parliament of man and Niall Ferguson's The war of the world, suggest that the divide between history and theory is not as severe as it sometimes appears. This review article examines, through the histories of Kennedy and Ferguson, Trachtenberg's insistence that historians should be more attentive to the 'conceptual cores' of their work and that theorists should become better historians than they have been ...
View more >International history and International Relations have long been held separate, partly by misunderstanding and partly by mistrust. Three recent books, Marc Trachtenberg's Craft of international history, Paul Kennedy's The parliament of man and Niall Ferguson's The war of the world, suggest that the divide between history and theory is not as severe as it sometimes appears. This review article examines, through the histories of Kennedy and Ferguson, Trachtenberg's insistence that historians should be more attentive to the 'conceptual cores' of their work and that theorists should become better historians than they have been hitherto. It concludes by arguing that, in methodological terms at least, history and theory are not the distinct enterprises they are commonly taken to be.
View less >
View more >International history and International Relations have long been held separate, partly by misunderstanding and partly by mistrust. Three recent books, Marc Trachtenberg's Craft of international history, Paul Kennedy's The parliament of man and Niall Ferguson's The war of the world, suggest that the divide between history and theory is not as severe as it sometimes appears. This review article examines, through the histories of Kennedy and Ferguson, Trachtenberg's insistence that historians should be more attentive to the 'conceptual cores' of their work and that theorists should become better historians than they have been hitherto. It concludes by arguing that, in methodological terms at least, history and theory are not the distinct enterprises they are commonly taken to be.
View less >
Journal Title
International Affairs
Volume
82
Issue
6
Subject
International Relations
Policy and Administration
Political Science