A Companion to Western Historical Thought

This companion seeks to examine the cultural history of Western historical thought from Biblical times to the contemporary. In their introduction, Kramer and Maza see historical thought as “narratives that tell stories about the past” that generally seek “to explain how both individuals and social or political systems change” (p. 5). The companion is therefore expansive in its subject and links with other disciplines, such as ancient history and the classics, anthropology, Biblical studies and theology, especially in the early chapters on historiography of pre‐modern societies.

The volume starts with a brief introduction to the contributors, who are mostly employed...