Fashioning History

This book offers historians and aspiring historians a learned, absorbing, and comprehensive overview of current fashions of method, interpretation, and meaning in the context of postmodernism that has washed over the historical profession in the last two decades.

"Berkhofer s approach illuminates . . . he offers a theoretical and methodological rationale for the current tendency to bring public and academic history together in fruitful conversations about the representations of the past." - The Journal of American History

"In his latest book, the distinguished historian of Native Americans Robert F. Berkhofer Jr. continues his previous explorations of theoretical issues underlying the practice of history writing with a very systematic attempt to account for what is happening when historians tell their tales. It is a very valuable book for diverse constituencies." - The Historian

"Fashioning History offers professional and aspiring historians a learned and absorbing overview of historical research and writing in the context of postmodern methods. Robert F. Berkhofer, Jr. provides the reader with indispensable background, discusses the products of history - admirably construed to include texts, material culture, and film - and argues that social and cultural history must contend with postmodernism without taking it too far. His advocacy of a middle path will make this book a timely and invaluable contribution for years to come." - Martha Hodes, author of The Sea Captain s Wife: A True Story of Love, Race, and War in the Nineteenth Century

"By analyzing shared procedures and categories of knowledge across different mediums of history, [Berkhofer] offers a theoretical and methodological rationale for the current tendency to bring public and academic history together in fruitful conversations about the representations of the past." - Ian Tyrell, University of New South Wales

ROBERT F. BERKHOFER, JR is a Professor Emeritus of History at the University of California, Santa Cruz, USA.