Thinking About History (The University of Chicago Press)

What distinguishes history as a discipline from other fields of study$238 That's the animating question of Sarah Maza's Thinking About History, a general introduction to the field of history that revels in its eclecticism and highlights the inherent tensions and controversies that shape it.

Designed for the classroom, Thinking About History is organized around big questions: Whose history do we write, and how does that affect what stories get told and how they are told$239 How did we come to view the nation as the inevitable context for history, and what happens when we move outside those boundaries$240 What is the relation among popular, academic, and public history, and how should we evaluate sources$241 What is the difference between description and interpretation, and how do we balance them$242 Maza provides choice examples in place of definitive answers, and the result is a book that will spark classroom discussion and offer students a view of history as a vibrant, ever-changing field of inquiry that is thoroughly relevant to our daily lives.