History ― Narration, Interpretation, Orientation

Historian Rusen (Institute for Cultural Studies, Essen) has completely revised his Studies in Metahistory, which was published in 1993 in the Series of the Human Sciences Research Council at Pretoria. He follows the different coordinates that intersect to bring about a sense of history: the procedure and logic of historical narration, the cognitive principles of rationality and truth claims in historical thinking, and the practical function of historical thinking in human life. The three modes, he says, are general presented as conflicting if not contradictory, but he shows how they are integrated. He only indexes names. Annotation c2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Jorn Rusen was Professor of Modern History at Universities Bochum and Bielefeld for many years. From 1994 to 1997 he was Director of the Center for Interdisciplinary Research (ZiF) at Bielefeld. Since 1997 he has been President of the Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities Essen (Kulturwissenschaftliches Institut). He specialises in theory and methodology of historical sciences, the history of historiography, intercultural aspects of historical thinking, theory of historical learning, and the history of human rights.