That Noble Dream: The 'Objectivity Question' and the American Historical Profession (Ideas in Context, Series Number 13)

The aspiration to relate the past "as it really happened" has been the central goal of American professional historians since the late nineteenth century. In this remarkable history of the profession, Peter Novick shows how the idea and ideal of objectivity was elaborated, challenged, modified, and defended over the past century. Drawing on the unpublished correspondence as well as the published writing of hundreds of American historians, this book is a richly textured account of what American historians have thought they were doing, or ought to be doing, when they wrote history—how their principles influenced their practice and practical exigencies influenced their principles. Published with the support of the Exxon Education Foundation. The aspiration to relate the past "as it really happened" has been the central goal of American professional historians since the late 19th century. In this remarkable history of the profession, Peter Novick shows how the idea and ideal of objectivity were elaborated, challenged, modified, and defended over the last century. Drawing on the unpublished correspondence as well as the published writings of hundreds of American historians from J. Franklin Jameson and Charles Beard to Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., and Eugene Genovese, That Nobel Dream is a richly textured account of what American historians have thought they were doing, or ought to be doing, when they wrote history -- how their principles influenced their practice and practical exigencies influenced their principles. " An astute and provocative account of how the historical profession in American has dealt with its founding myth and central norm -- the ideal of objectivity ." -- Dorothy Ross "The aspiration to relate the past 'as it really happened' has been the central goal of American professional historians since the late nineteenth century. In this remarkable history of the profession, Peter Novick shows how the idea and ideal of objectivity were elaborated, challenged, modified, and defended over the last century. Drawing on the unpublished correspondence as well as the published writings of hundreds of American historians from J. Franklin Jameson and Charles Beard to Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., and Eugene Genovese, That Noble Dream is a richly textured account of what American historians have thought they were doing, or ought to be doing, when they wrote history - how their principles influenced their practice and practical exigencies influenced their principles."--Provided by publisher The aspiration to relate the past "as it really happened" has been the central goal of American professional historians since the late nineteenth century. In this book, the author shows how the idea and ideal of objectivity was elaborated, challenged, modified, and defended over the past century. Drawing on the unpublished correspondence as well as the published writing of hundreds of American historians, this book presents an account of what American historians have thought they were doing, or ought to be doing, when they wrote history - how their principles influenced their practice and practical exigencies influenced their principles The evolution of the idea and ideal of objectivity is traced over the past century from a selection of unpublished as well as published writings of hundreds of American historians. Peter Novick. Includes Index. Bibliography: P. 630-632.