Debate on Role of Theory in Discipline of History

Three historians last week issued a manifesto, saying that the discipline of history has become dominated by empiricist approaches, to the neglect of the role of theory. This approach, they argue, limits the relevance of history as a field. "Existing academic history promotes a disciplinary essentialism founded upon a methodological fetishism," says their document. "Treating reified appearances (i.e. immediately observable, preferably archival, evidence) as embodying the real and containing the truth of social relations, it evaluates scholarship based on whether this empiricist method has been capably employed. The field tends to produce scholars rather than thinkers, and regards scholars in technocratic terms."...

EXCERPT FROM THE MANIFESTO (CLICK HERE TO READ THE MANIFESTO IN FULL.)