Biography: An Historiography

📘 Book Details

• Author: Melanie Nolan

• Publisher: Routledge

• Language: English

• Edition: 1

• ISBN: 9781138387249

• Pages: 384

• Cover: Paperback

• Release Date: 03-04-2023

• Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.0 x 0.9 inches

📝 About The Book

"Biography: An Historiography" by Melanie Nolan presents a groundbreaking study of the use and evolution of biography in Western historical writing from the 19th century to the present. This comprehensive volume critically explores how historians have grappled with the challenges of writing biographies and the methodological questions that arise in the process.

Nolan identifies and addresses seven major historiographical problems related to biography: causation, fact vs. fiction, understanding other minds, significance and representativeness, macro and micro perspectives, subjectivity, and relative truth. She examines the ways in which historians have responded to these enduring issues, making this book an invaluable guide to the complexities of historical biography.

A must-read for postgraduate students, academic researchers, and historians, this text provides deep insights into the philosophical, practical, and ethical dimensions of biographical research. Its analytical approach helps readers understand not just the history of biography, but also the intellectual tensions that continue to shape historical narrative today.

Ideal for scholars of historiography, biography, history writing, and narrative theory, this book is an essential resource in the modern historian’s library.