Modern Idea of History and its Value

Dr. Chiel van den Akker is lecturer Historical Theory at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. He is the author of Elementaire Deeltjes - Geschiedenis (Athenaeum 2019) and The Exemplifying Past. A Philosophy of History (Amsterdam University Press 2018).

• 1. Introduction: the use and abuse of history 2. The first historian 3. Historicism 4. Causes and reasons 5. Talent and insight 6. The historical sublime 7. Conclusion: the historian's responsibility.

Van den Akker's discussion of historical insight raises questions of subjectivity, objectivity, and normativity, and the different points of view from which these may be understood. [...] [The book] is accurately subtitled An Introduction so I surmise its intended readership is mainly second-or third-year history majors in order to give them a brief overview of the nature of their discipline. And indeed, it is admirably suited to that purpose.- Karl Pfeifer, University of Saskatchewan & Monash University, International Network for the Theory of History, 2021, [...] a very good and inspiring introduction to substantive and classic questions of philosophy of history from the point of view of somebody who takes seriously the challenges of the New Philosophy of History (post White and Ankersmit). Van den Akker, certainly himself a new philosopher of history, manages very well to lead the reader unfamiliar with authors from various traditions and different times in a keen and accessible way to show their relevance to our contemporary concerns.,- Verónica Tozzi Thompson, Journal of the Philosophy of History, Vol. 16, Iss. 2