Trousson, Raymond / Vercruysse, Jeroom (dir.), Dictionnaire general de Voltaire. (Champion classiques, references et dictionnaires 18) 1272 p. 2020:10 (Champion, FR) <670-9>
ISBN 978-2-38096-016-7 paper ¥7,064.- (税込) EUR 38.00

Schumann, Gunnar, Historical Explanation: An Anti-Causalist Approach. (Routledge Studies in Contemporary Philosophy) 334 pp. 2023:11 (Routledge, UK) <705-97>
ISBN 978-1-03-258654-0 hard ¥38,461.- (税込) GB￡ 135.00 *

This book is concerned with the appropriate form of explanations in historiography and the social sciences. It combines action theory and philosophy of historiography and develops a theory of teleological explanations of human actions based on late-Wittgensteinian and Ordinary Language Philosophy insights.In philosophy of action, many philosophers favor causal theories of human action. Additionally, in current philosophy of historiography the majority view is that historians should explain historical phenomena by their causes. This book pushes back against these mainstream views by reviving an anti-causal view of explanation of current and past human actions. The author argues that disciplines that deal with human actions require a certain form of explanation, namely a teleological or intentional explanation. This means that past human actions and their results will have to be explained by reasons of agents, not by causes. Therefore, historiography employs a method of explanation which is in stark contrast to the sciences. The author thus proposes a Verstehen (understanding) approach in historiography and the social sciences.Historical Explanation will be of interest to scholars and advanced students working in philosophy of action, philosophy of history, and philosophy of the social sciences.

Zager, Raphael, Das Geschichtsdenken Augustins: Zur Rezeption des Alten Testaments in De ciuitate dei XV-XVIII. (Beitraege zur historischen Theologie 204) XVI, 599 S. 2023:7 (Mohr, GW) <705-255>
ISBN 978-3-16-162485-8 hard ¥33,897.- (税込) EUR 144.00 *

Augustin zeichnet in den Buechern XV-XVIII seines Werkes De ciuitate dei die Geschichte der Menschheit nach. Dabei sind es vor allem Erzaehlungen und Motive aus dem Alten Testament, die Augustin als Grundlage seiner Geschichtsdarstellung dienen. Innerhalb seiner Auslegungen der betreffenden biblischen Texte wird nicht nur Augustins spezifische Schrifthermeneutik deutlich, sondern es kommen auch zentrale Themen seiner Theologie zur Sprache. Raphael Zager untersucht die Rezeption des Alten Testaments, ordnet sie in ihre theologiegeschichtlichen Kontexte ein und entwickelt auf dieser Grundlage neue Antworten auf Fragen, die die Forschung zum Geschichtsdenken Augustins immer wieder beschaeftigt haben. Dies betrifft etwa Augustins Bewertung des Tun-Ergehen-Zusammenhangs, seine Haltung gegenueber dem Gedanken eines Fortschritts in der Geschichte oder auch sein Verhaeltnis zum Judentum.

Becker, Tobias, Yesterday: A New History of Nostalgia. 344 pp. 2023:12 (Harvard U. Pr., US) <705-1430>
ISBN 978-0-674-25175-5 hard ¥7,546.- (税込) US$ 35.00 *

A sweeping reassessment of our longing for the past, from the rise of "retro" to the rhetoric of Brexit and Trump.Nostalgia has a bad reputation. Its critics dismiss it as mere sentimentality or, worse, a dangerous yearning for an imagined age of purity. And nostalgia is routinely blamed for trivializing the past and obscuring its ugly sides. In Yesterday, Tobias Becker offers a more nuanced and sympathetic view. Surveying the successive waves of nostalgia that swept the United States and Europe after the Second World War, he shows that longing for the past is more complex and sometimes more beneficial than it seems.The current meaning of "nostalgia" is surprisingly recent: until the 1960s, it usually just meant homesickness, in keeping with the original Greek word. Linking popular culture to postwar politics in the United States, Great Britain, and Germany, Becker explains the shift in meaning. He also responds to arguments against nostalgia, showing its critics as often shortsighted in their own ways as they defend an idea of progress no less naive than the wistfulness they denounce. All too often, nostalgia itself is criticized, as if its merit did not depend on which specific past one longs for.Taking its title from one of the most popular songs of all time, and grounded in extensive research, Yesterday offers a rigorous and entertaining perspective on divisive issues in culture and politics. Whether we are revisiting, reviving, reliving, reenacting, or regressing, and whether these activities find expression in politics, music, fashion, or family history, nostalgia is inevitable. It is also powerful, not only serving to define the past but also orienting us toward the future we will create.

Smolarski, Rene / Carius, Hendrikje / Prell, Martin (Hrsg.), Citizen Science in den Geschichtswissenschaften: Methodische Perspektive oder perspektivlose Methode? (DH&CS 3) 300 S. 2023:6 (V & R unipress, GW) <705-1433>
ISBN 978-3-8471-1571-7 paper ¥11,770.- (税込) EUR 50.00 *

Die Digitalisierung des Wissenschaftsprozesses ist mit der Oeffnung der Wissenschaften fuer partizipative Formate auf verschiedenen Beteiligungsebenen eng verbunden. Citizen Science bzw. buergerwissenschaftliche Ansaetze gewinnen dabei auch in den Geschichtswissenschaften zunehmend an Bedeutung. Der Band gibt einen praxisorientierten Einblick in vorhandene Infrastrukturen sowie unterschiedliche Projektansaetze in den Kernbereichen zivilgesellschaftlicher Beteiligung an historischer Forschung. Dabei werden exemplarisch Potenziale und Herausforderungen bei der Konzeption, Implementierung und Durchfuehrung von historisch orientierten Citizen-Science-Projekten beleuchtet sowie Erfolgskriterien und kuenftige Perspektiven herausgearbeitet. Der Band moechte somit zur Debatte um die Nutzung von Citizen Science als Methode innerhalb der historischen Forschung beitragen.

Gaur, Ishwar Dayal, Historiography - Cosmography: A Monograph in Honour of Professor Harjeet Singh Gill. 170 pp. 2023:10 (Routledge, UK) <705-110>
ISBN 978-1-03-259809-3 hard ¥38,461.- (税込) GB￡ 135.00 *

This book attempts to study Panjab historiography from the viewpoint of cosmography, the concept derived from the cosmological paradigm which Professor Harjeet Singh Gill, an eminent semiotician, developed in his oeuvre.Since its introduction in the colonial Panjab, the discipline of historiography subdued the indigenous craft of history writing such as katha, qissa, janamsakhi, and jangnama wherein what Professor Gill has conceptualized as "the dialectic of representation and transcendence" remained ever active.This title has been co-published with Aakar Books.