In the past thirty years, historians have broadened the scope of their discipline to include many previously neglected topics and perspectives. They have chronicled language, madness, gender, and sexuality and have experimented with new forms of presentation. They have turned to the histories of non-Western peoples and to the troubled relations between “the West” and the rest. Allan Megill welcomes these developments, but he also suggests that there is now confusion among historians about what counts as a justified account of the past.

InHistorical Knowledge, Historical Error, Megill dispels some of the confusion. Here, he discusses issues of narrative, objectivity, and memory. He attacks what he sees as irresponsible uses of evidence while accepting the art of speculation, which incomplete evidence forces upon historians. Along the way, he offers succinct accounts of the epistemological road historians have traveled from Herodotus and Thucydides through Leopold von Ranke and Alexis de Tocqueville, and on to Hayden White, Natalie Zemon Davis, and Lynn Hunt.

Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction: The Need for Historical Epistemology

Part I. Memory
1. History with Memory, History without Memory
Memory versus History
History and the Present
Conflicting Attitudes toward the Past
History’s Legitimate Roles
2. History, Memory, Identity
Identity and the Memory Wave
Identity, Memory, and Historical Understanding
History, Memory, and the Unknown

Part II. Narrative and Knowledge
3. Does Narrative Have a Cognitive Value of Its Own?
The “Crisis” of Narrative
The Epistemological Limits of Narrative
4. Narrative and the Four Tasks of History-Writing
Explanation and Description
Narrative and Braudel’sMediterranean
The Four Tasks of History-Writing

Part III. Objectivity and Speculation
5. Objectivity for Historians
Objectivity and Commitment
Defining Objectivity
6. A Case Study in Historical Epistemology: What Did the Neighbors Know about Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings?
(by Steven Shepard, Phillip Honenberger, and Allan Megill)
A Disputed Case
Inference to the Best Explanation
Thagard’s Three Criteria
A Fourth Criterion
Inferring the Relationship
The Case for Our Alternative Account
7. Counterfactual History: On Niall Ferguson’sVirtual Historyand Similar Works

Part IV. Fragmentation
8. Fragmentation and the Future of Historiography: On Peter Novick’sThat Noble Dream
9. “Grand Narrative” and the Discipline of History
Four Ideal-Typical Attitudes toward the Overall Coherence of History
Four Postulates Suggested by the Preceding Account
10. Coherence and Incoherence in Historical Studies: From theAnnalesSchool to the New Cultural History
TheAnnalesSchool and the Problem of Coherence
TheAnnalesSchool: From Convergence to Multiplicity
Coherence as a Willed Commitment
Conclusion: Against Current Fashion

Notes
Index