Historical Evidence and Argument

Historians know about the past because they examine the evidence.

But what exactly is "evidence," how do historians know what it means--and how can we trust them to get it right? Historian David Henige tackles such questions of historical reliability head-on in his skeptical, unsparing, and acerbically witty Historical Evidence and Argument. "Systematic doubt" is his watchword, and he practices what he preaches through a variety of insightful assessments of historical controversies--for example, over the dating of artifacts and the textual analysis of translated documents. Skepticism, Henige contends, forces us to recognize the limits of our knowledge, but is also a positive force that stimulates new scholarship to counter it.

Author: David Henige
Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press
Published: 01/01/2006
Pages: 340
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.44lbs
Size: 9.34h x 6.14w x 0.99d
ISBN: 9780299214104

Review Citation(s):
Choice 07/01/2006 pg. 2049

About the Author
David Henige is the African studies bibliographer at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and editor of several national series on African history.