Customer Reviews
Once it was thought-provoking, now dangerously out-of-date - By: A. Historian, 07 Jun 2007 
I am interested by this book, because it has had its impact on the way history is taught. But now - sixteen years after it was first published - it is a pinnacle of everything wrong about historical theoryin the modern world. There as some things which are just plain patronising about it, like the idea that historical literature is different from the past: 'This might strike you as odd for you may have missed this distinction before..' on page 6 (Oh really? Like I hadn't noticed the difference between a book about the blitz & having bombs dropped on me.) But the important issue is the post-modernist bias of text-obsession. It criticises history on the grounds that to 'do' history you must read texts, which are just discourses. This is fundamentally wrong. Yes, you must read texts, but you must also look at archaeological remains, to feel sensations, to be alive. To be alive now is the best evidence we have as to what it was like to be alivein the past. One suspects, reading his book, that Jenkins has never really been alive. Rather he reduces all interaction with the past to a jaw-dropping receptiveness to textual information. For most people the questions posed by the past, & the answers to those questions, are not matters of text but correlation (or contrast) between past evidence & present reality. As a result this book may well be held up (soon) as a key example of how attempts to use post-modernist ideas to control history are bound to fail, even if they cause us to look again at our sources. If Jenkins' theories held true, every wordin the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography would be dodgy, open to doubt. If that is the case it is only so because one could,in theory, object to every source's interpretation. But one cannot - there is no doubting that princess Diana diedin 1997. Life is too short & history is too interesting - & history is too great & life too interesting - to pay heed to the arguments advancedin this book
Fatuous, overly-critical and irritatingly smug - By: davektt, 10 Oct 2003 
Having read this book as part of a series of books for a Uni course, compared to the likes of Marc Bloch, Karl Marx & others, I couldn't help wondering why, if he knows so much about the problems with historical writing, Jenkins has never bothered to write a history book, rather than a historical theory book. Others have criticised the traditional methodology of historians but put their own ideas into practice to demonstrate what they mean. Jenkins seems to have neither the imagination nor the ability to write history, so instead he has turned his attention to criticising it. Having said this, he has some interesting ideas, but they must be compared to the writing of Richard Evans (In Defence of History), Bloch & as many others as possible, which will rather show up the flawsin his reasoning.
A book that will change the way you look at everything - By: , 19 Apr 2002 
Rethinking History is an essential guide to the debates concerning the world we are living in, relevant not just for historians but for everyone. It raises interesting questions concerning our education system, politics & our perception of "bias" & "truth" when it comes to the past & our attitudes towards it. In some places the book leaves a great deal to be desiredin its grammar & sentence structure, but get beyond the bad use of the English language, & this book doesin fact have some very important things to say. Believe me, it will change the way you look at everything!
A fresh look at Historiography - By: , 23 Apr 2001 I picked up this book having read EH Carr, & with an open mind, & was not disappointed. Jenkins really hits the nail on the head with this insightful book that prompts one to take a fresh look at some of today's most controversial historical problems. It is a very engaging, readable book that has been so usefulin my personal study of history, particularlyin the attention paid to the relevance & irrelevance of historical sources & facts. I thoroughly recommend this to anyone studying History!
