The New Cultural History

"An important and provocative argument for the 'new cultural history, ' an approach to history that stresses the importance of meaning in social action and the complexity of recovering the dynamics of expression and interpretation in the past."--Michael MacDonald, University of Wisconsin, Madison"An extremely important work that explains what is meant by 'the new cultural history.' It successfully explores the central ideas of this line of research, and it shows how this growing new field relates to developments in such other disciplines as anthropology. The book is uncommonly readable."--Elvin Hatch, University of California, Santa Barbara"A lively and timely guide to a body of theory, some of it notoriously difficult, that is currently shaping academic practice."--Jan Goldstein, University of Chicago