The Origins Of History
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Condition remarks:
Book: Very good
Jacket: Very good
Pages: Good
At the crossroads of faith, philosophy, and scholarship, The Origins of History presents Herbert Butterfield's sweeping meditation on how human beings first came to understand and record their own past. One of the twentieth century's most distinguished historians, Butterfield chronicles the emergence of historical consciousness across ancient civilisations — from the mythological narratives of the Near East to the rational inquiries of the Greeks — arguing that the Judeo-Christian tradition played a foundational and transformative role in shaping the Western conception of time and human destiny. Edited and introduced by Adam Watson, this posthumously published work distils a lifetime of intellectual rigour into a profound and accessible argument about why history, as a discipline, matters at all. Butterfield writes with the measured authority of a Cambridge scholar and the spiritual conviction of a deeply humane thinker, weaving together theology, philosophy, and historiography into a unified vision of civilisation's self-awareness. His prose is precise yet luminous, carrying the weight of a thinker who spent decades interrogating the moral dimensions of historical study. For anyone who has ever wondered not merely *what* history records, but *why* humanity felt compelled to record it in the first place, this volume offers a rare and enduring answer.
Author: Herbert Butterfield
Format: Hardback
Published: 1981, Basic Books, Inc.
Genre: History
Condition remarks:
Book: Very good
Jacket: Very good
Pages: Good
At the crossroads of faith, philosophy, and scholarship, The Origins of History presents Herbert Butterfield's sweeping meditation on how human beings first came to understand and record their own past. One of the twentieth century's most distinguished historians, Butterfield chronicles the emergence of historical consciousness across ancient civilisations — from the mythological narratives of the Near East to the rational inquiries of the Greeks — arguing that the Judeo-Christian tradition played a foundational and transformative role in shaping the Western conception of time and human destiny. Edited and introduced by Adam Watson, this posthumously published work distils a lifetime of intellectual rigour into a profound and accessible argument about why history, as a discipline, matters at all. Butterfield writes with the measured authority of a Cambridge scholar and the spiritual conviction of a deeply humane thinker, weaving together theology, philosophy, and historiography into a unified vision of civilisation's self-awareness. His prose is precise yet luminous, carrying the weight of a thinker who spent decades interrogating the moral dimensions of historical study. For anyone who has ever wondered not merely *what* history records, but *why* humanity felt compelled to record it in the first place, this volume offers a rare and enduring answer.