History and Cultural Theory

"This is an outstanding work of elucidation and criticism, written with rare lucidity. It will be invaluable to both students and seasoned researchers". John Tosh, Professor of History, Roehampton University

"...a well-informed, lucid and balanced survey of the field." Peter Burke, Emeritus Professor of Cultural History, University of Cambridge

"Consistently intelligent and thoughtful, this book provides an accessible guide to the theoretical forms that proved most generative of historical scholarship and historiographical debate in Britain over the last four decades." James Vernon, Associate Professor, University of California , Berkeley .

In recent times there has been recognition of the growing influence of cultural theory on historical writing. Foucault, Bourdieu, Butler and Spivak are just some of the thinkers whose ideas have been taken up and deployed by historians.

What are these ideas and where do they come from? How have cultural theorists thought about 'history'? And how have historians applied theoretical insights to enhance their own understanding of events in the past?

This book provides a wide-ranging and authoritative guide to the often vexed and controversial relationship between history and contemporary theory. It analyses the concepts that concern both theorists and historians, such as power, identity, modernity and postcolonialism, and offers a critical evaluation of them from an historical standpoint.

Written in an accessible manner, History and Cultural Theory gives historians and students an invaluable summary of the impact of cultural theory on historiography over the last twenty years, and indicates the likely directions of the subject in the future.

Simon Gunn is Reader in History in the School of Cultural Studies at Leeds Metropolitan University.

This text introduces the relationship between contemporary cultural theory and the study of history and references key theorists in order to make this link evident.

• A clear exposition of a specified theme (culture, power, post colonialism, etc.) and the key theorists identified with it.
• Makes complex and difficult theory accessible to undergraduates
• Outlines how cultural theories bear on established historical topics and categories, such as gender, class and politics.
• Gives concrete examples of historians’ own usage of such ideas drawn from a range of cultures, contexts and periods.
• Will be bought by history and sociology students.

Simon Gunn is Reader in History in the School of Cultural Studies at Leeds Metropolitan University. He is the author of The Public Culture of the Victorian Middle Class and was historical adviser to the highly praised BBC2 series, Middle Classes, from which he also co-authored the book, published by Cassell, 2002. He has taught at undergraduate and postgraduate levels on the relationship between history and cultural theory, and has published articles on the ideas of theorists including Walter Benjamin, Pierre Bourdieu and Michel Foucault.