No historian worthy of the name is only an historian

Abstract

This essay discusses an almost forgotten text by Hayden White: a 1959 book review published in the journal Speculum. The brief text offers an interesting glimpse on the medieval historian that was White in 1959 – though one who clearly was on his way of becoming a historical theorist. At the same time, the review raises a number of questions with which historians still find themselves struggling. What are the moral interventions that historians make through their books and articles? And is it true, as White memorably put it, that “no historian worthy of the name is only an historian”?

Keywords

• hayden white
• louis lekai
• christopher dawson
• history and ethics