Table of Contents

Preface

List of Abbreviations

1. The World of History

2. Purposes, Narratives, Methods

3. A Historical World of Partisan Strife: The Early Eighteenth Century

4. Contrasting Approaches: Burnet and Astell

5. The Unstable Past: Dissenters and History

6. History Suited to Mid-Century Struggle

7. From the New Reign to the Crisis of Empire, 1760-1776

8. Empire as Historical Narrative: Gibbon and the Descent of Civilizations

9. History in the Age of Burke

Conclusions: Bringing the Past into the Present

Selected Further Reading

Index

About the Author

Jeremy Black is Professor of History at the University of Exeter. He is author of many books, including Plotting Power: Strategy in the Eighteenth Century; Clio's Battles: Historiography in Practice; War and Technology; and Geographies of an Imperial Power: The British World, 1688–1815. Black is a recipient of the Samuel Eliot Morison Prize of the Society for Military History.

Reviews

Jeremy Black's Charting the Past is a useful book....For someone new to the field, wishing a guide through the immense thickets of historical writing and its assorted contexts, Black has provided a good start, and fodder for investigation of some of the more obscure writers he usefully brings to light. - Daniel Woolf (H-Net.org) Charting the Past is an enjoyable and informative read that enriches an understanding of eighteenth-century England and serves as a useful primer for further study and research. (Journal of British Studies)