The Idea of History

By: Collingwood, R. G.

Historians reconstruct past thought processes through historical imagination, re-enacting evidence from sources.

The classical work, The Idea of History, by the British historian Collingwood, was a posthumous work, and was much quoted by historians like E.H. Carr, in his much-praised work, What is History? It proposed history as the discipline from the time of Herodotus to the twentieth century. He considered history as a science, but distinguished it from natural sciences as he defines that history is concerned with social sciences and human affairs. He considers that the historian must reconstruct history using 'historical imagination' to 're-enact' the thought process of historical person based on information and evidence from historical sources.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 9360803278
• ISBN13: 9789360803278
• Release Date: June 2026
• Publisher: Manohar Books
• Length: 346 Pages