From the late fifteenth century onwards, scholars across Europe began to write books about how to read and evaluate histories. These pioneering works grew from complex early modern debates about law, religion and classical scholarship. Anthony Grafton`s book is based on his Trevelyan Lectures of 2005, and it proves to be a powerful and imaginative exploration of some central themes in the history of European ideas. Grafton explains why so many of these works were written, why they attained so much insight – and why, in the centuries that followed, most scholars gradually forgot that they had existed. Elegant and accessible, What Was History? is a deliberate evocation of E. H. Carr`s celebrated Trevelyan Lectures, What Is History?.

Short and accessible work from one of the world`s leading cultural historians
Deliberate linkage with What Is History? by E. H. Carr, one of the best-selling history books of all time
Anthony Grafton will have major transatlantic bookseller recognition, following success of his previous books, such as The Footnote

List of plates
1. Historical criticism in early modern Europe
2. The origins of the Ars historica: a question mal posée?
3. Method and madness in the Ars historica: three case studies
4. Death of a genre
Bibliography
Index.