"What is history - a question historians have been asking themselves time and again. Does "history" as an academic discipline, as it has evolved in the West over the centuries, represent a specific mode of historical thinking that can be defined in contrast to other forms of historical consciousness? In this volume, Peter Burke, a prominent "Western" historian, offers ten hypotheses that attempt to constitute specifically "Western Historical Thinking." Scholars from Asia and Africa comment on his position in the light of their own ideas of the sense and meaning of historical thinking. The volume is rounded off by Peter Burke's comments on the questions and issues raised by the authors and his suggestions for the way forward towards a common ground for intercultural communication."--BOOK JACKET

Preface to the Series / Jorn Rusen

Introduction: Historical Thinking as Intercultural Discourse / Jorn Rusen 1

Western Historical Thinking in a Global Perspective - 10 Theses / Peter Burke 15

Perspectives in Historical Anthropology / Klaus E. Muller 33

Searching for Common Principles: A Plea and Some Remarks on the Islamic Tradition / Tarif Khalidi 53

The Coherence of the West / Aziz Al-Azmeh 58

Toward an Archaeology of Historical Thinking / Francois Hartog 65

Trauma and Suffering: A Forgotten Source of Western Historical Consciousness / Frank R. Ankersmit 72

Western Deep Culture and Western Historical Thinking / Johan Galtung 85

What is Uniquely Western about the Historiography of the West in Contrast to that of China? / George G. Iggers 101

The Westernization of World History / Hayden White 111

Western Historical Thinking from an Arabian Perspective / Sadik J. Al-Azm 119

Cognitive Historiography and Normative Historiography / Masayuki Sato 128

Western Uniqueness? Some Counterarguments from an African Perspective / Godfrey Muriuki 142

Programs for Historians: A Western Perspective / Mamadou Diawara 148

Reflections on Chinese Historical Thinking / Ying-shih Yu 152

Must History Follow Rational Patterns of Interpretation? Critical Questions from a Chinese Perspective / Thomas H. C. Lee 173

Some Reflections on Early Indian Historical Thinking / Romila Thapar 178

Reply / Peter Burke 189

Notes on Contributors 199

Index 203