New History. Issue 4

Author: Chen Heng
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-07-01
Features: After World War II, the Western historiography underwent two major changes. One was the challenge posed by the "New History" (also known as "Social History"), which emerged in the mid-1950s and challenged the traditional historiography represented by Ranke. Social history gradually replaced political history and became the mainstream of historical research. The main historiographical schools during this period included: the French Annales School, the British Marxist Historical School (also known as the "New Social History School"), and the American Social Science History School (also known as the "Cliometricians"). Among these, the Annales School had the greatest influence. By the late 1970s, the "New Cultural History" (also known as "Social Cultural History"), which originated in France, replaced the "New History" and became the new favorite in Western historiography. To distinguish it from cultural history represented by figures such as Jacob Burckhardt (1818-1897) and Johan Huizinga (1872-1945), the outstanding American female historian Lynn Hunt (1945-) first coined the term "New Cultural History" in her book The New Cultural History in 1989. It is particularly noteworthy that after the rise of the "New History" (Political History - Social History - New Cultural History) as the mainstream, traditional historiography did not die out but continued to exist and develop, competing with the New History, though its (general trend had passed).