The question of what the nature of history is, is a key issue for all students of history. It is recognized by many that the past and history are different phenomena and that the way the past is actively historicized can be highly problematic and contested.

The Postmodern History Reader introduces students to the new points of controversy in the study of history and provides a framework by which to understand postmodernism and a guide to explore it further.

The editors illustrate how book history studies have evolved into a broad approach which incorporates social and cultural considerations governing the production, dissemination and reception of print and texts.

A splendid anthology that began as a sellout issue of Antaeus more than a decade ago, this complete revised and expanded edition proves beyond a doubt that some of the finest writing today is being done by writers concerned with nature and natural history. Twenty-seven writers from a range of disciplines have been added to the original roster of contributors. The Nature Reader also includes an updated reading list of the most important books of natural history, annotated by the distinguished advisory editors: Annie Dillard, Gretel Ehrlich, Jim Harrison, John Hap, Edward Hoagland, Barry Lopez, David Quammen, and Terry Tempest Williams. International in scope and inclusive in selection, The Nature Reader belongs on the short list of best books of nature writing.

Are historians story-tellers? Is it possible to tell true stories about the past? These are just two of the questions raised in this comprehensive collection of texts about philosophy, theory and methodology of writing history.

Drawing on theory and practice from five continents, this book offers clearly written accessible introductions to debates in public history. It places people at the heart of history-making and discusses practical examples of artists, collectors, novelists, activists, curators, those paid to write history and those who do it for fun.

In 1978 historian Joseph Wall wrote that Iowa was “still seeking to assert its own identity. . . . It has no real center where the elite of either power, wealth, or culture may congregate. Iowa, in short, is middle America.” In this collection of well-written and accessible essays, originally published in 1996, seventeen of the Hawkeye State’s most accomplished historians reflect upon the dramatic and not-so-dramatic shifts in the middle land’s history in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Marvin Bergman has drawn upon his years of editing the Annals of Iowa to gather contributors who cross disciplines, model the craft of writing a historical essay, cover more than one significant topic, and above all interpret history rather than recite it. In his preface to this new printing, he calls attention to publications that begin to fill the gaps noted in the 1996 edition. Rather than survey the basic facts, the essayists engage readers in the actual making of Iowa’s history by trying to understand the meaning of its past. By providing comprehensive accounts of topics in Iowa history that embrace the broader historiographical issues in American history, such as the nature of Progressivism and Populism, the debate over whether women’s expanded roles in wartime carried over to postwar periods, and the place of quantification in history, the essayists contribute substantially to debates at the national level at the same time that they interpret Iowa’s distinctive culture.

This book presents the National Book League's Third Annual Lecture, which discusses the relationship between the reading public and the nature of historical inquiry.