Introduction to the Study of History - PAPERBACK

About The Book : It has not been our intention to give, as Mr. W. B. Boyce has done, a summary of universal history for the use of beginners and readers of scanty leisure. Nor has it been our intention to add a new item to the abundant literature of what is ordinarily called the "Philosophy of History." Thinkers, for the most part not professed historians, have made history the subject of their meditations; they have sought for its " analogies " and its " laws." Some have supposed themselves to have discovered " the laws which have governed the development of humanity," and thus to have " raised history to the rank of a positive science." These vast abstract constructions inspire with an invincible a 'priori mistrust, not the general public only, but superior minds as well. The history of the attempts which have been made to understand and explain philosophically the history of humanity has been undertaken, as is well known, by Robert Flint. Mr. Flint has already given the history of the Philosophy of History in French- speaking countries : "Historical Philosophy in France and French Belgium and Switzerland," Edinburgh and London, 1893. About The Author : Charles-Victor Langlois (1863-1929) was a French historian and paleographer, who specialized in the study of the Middle Ages and taught at the Sorbonne. He attended the Ecole Nationale des Chartes and earned a doctorate in history in 1887. He taught at the University of Douai before moving to the Sorbonne. He was director of the National Archives of France from 1913 to 1929. His 1897 work Introduction aux Etudes Historiques (Introduction to the Study of History), written with Charles Seignobos (1854-1942), is considered one of the first comprehensive manuals discussing the use of scientific techniques in historical research. Amongst his other works are: Le Regne de Philippe III le Hardi (1887), Les Archives de l'Histoire de France....