Historicism and the Human Sciences in Victorian Britain

Bibliographic Data

ID19905591
EditorsMark Bevir (0000-0001-9666-3113)
Year2017
Publication date2017-01-01
Open AccessYes
TypeBOOK
VenueHistoricism and the Human Sciences in Victorian Britain (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherCambridge University Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1017/9781316711286
OpenAlexW4253939456
Open LibraryOL34722782M
ISBN9781316711286
LanguageEN
Citations received6

Historicism and the Human Sciences in Victorian Britain explores the rise and nature of historicist thinking about such varied topics as life, race, character, literature, language, economics, empire, and law. The contributors show that the Victorians typically understood life and society as developing historically in a way that made history central to their intellectual inquiries and their public culture. Although their historicist ideas drew on some Enlightenment themes, they drew at least as much on organic ideas and metaphors in ways that lent them a developmental character. This developmental historicism flourished alongside evolutionary motifs and romantic ideas of the self. The human sciences were approached through narratives, and often narratives of reason and progress. Life, individuals, society, government, and literature all unfolded gradually in accord with underlying principles, such as those of rationality, nationhood, and liberty. This book will appeal to those interested in Victorian Britain, historiography, and intellectual history

Aesthetics · Art · Character (mathematics) · Enlightenment · Epistemology · Historicism · Historiography · Human science · Literature · Narrative · New Historicism · Political science · Rationality · Social science · Sociology · Australian History and Society · History · Law · Philosophy · Publishing and Scholarly Communication · 1837-1901 · Great britain · Intellectual life · Social sciences · Victoria

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