Professionalisation
The modern academic profession of history is seen as developing in Britain (influenced by earlier developments in Germany) from the late 19th century, with the emergence of various institutions (university departments, journals, scholarly associations) at the same time as a more 'scientific' methodology which stressed the importance of primary sources and objectivity. Since then both the subject matter and approaches of the discipline have changed significantly, with the move away from a narrow concentration on political history to a broader view encompassing the social and the cultural, and with various challenges to the truth claims of the source-based empirical approach. The profession has also been transformed by the sheer scale of its growth, from the handful of historians teaching in universities at the end of the 19th century to the nearly 3000 today.
Click here to read full article
- Historians:
- Pollard, Albert Frederick
Tout, Thomas Frederick
- Institutions:
- Historical Association
Institute of Historical Research
Royal Historical Society - Themes:
- Archive skills and tools for historians
Facts & figures
Related publications
- Making History: an Introduction to the History and Practices of a Discipline, ed. Peter Lambert and Phillipp Schofield (London, 2004)
