Review: What is History? (1990) by Edward Hallett Carr

This book is a collection of the author's speeches on history delivered in 1961. The speeches address ...

1. the current feeling of pessimism felt by a once-powerful elite that sees the end of the British Empire,
2. why history is not merely a recitation of statistics and facts and that historians should try to understand what has happened,
3. that we should be cautious when using our values to judge the past,
4. how we reinterpret history using different views as our knowledge increases.

Throughout the book, there are constant reminders of how the past, present and future form a continuous narrative of human society. References to other past and contemporary historians make some parts of the book hard to understand. Carr is rather disparaging of the 'big man' and 'chance' interpretation of history, preferring a more sociological view.

Carr died before he wrote a planned second edition to his book, and R. W. Davies presents his notes in an afterword.

4 out of 5 stars.