• Essays reflecting upon the relationship of time & history & how historians have addressed long-term themes, by Penelope J. Corfield.

Time and History

These essays reflect upon the relationship of Time and History – and upon the changing ways in which historians have addressed long-term themes. The welcome return to diachronic interpretations does not entail, however, the revival of simple models of ‘Progress’ or ‘inevitable class struggle’. Nor does it require dividing History into mutually exclusive stages of development, since that procedure obscures the through-time elements of deep continuity. Instead, the perennial challenge is to generate dynamic interpretations that pay attention to specificities whilst explaining the ever-changing mix of continuities, gradual changes and dramatic transformations.

5.1 TIME & THE SHAPE OF HISTORY
5.2 RETHINKING HISTORICAL PERIODISATION
5.3 DIMENSIONS OF THE LONG TERM
5.4 RETURNING TO BIG HISTORY