Poetry for historians - by Carolyn Steedman (Paperback)
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<p/><br></br><p><b> About the Book </b></p></br></br>What is the point of poetry for historians? The answer lies in this new 'history of history', which looks at the question through the prism of W. H. Auden's Cold War history poems and of poetry and history education from the eighteenth century to the present day.<p/><br></br><p><b> Book Synopsis </b></p></br></br>This is a book about the conflict between history and poetry and historians and poets - in Atlantic World society from the end of the seventeenth-century to the present day. Blending historiography and theory, it proceeds by asking: what is the point of poetry as far as historians are concerned? The focus is on W. H. Auden's Cold War-era history poems, but the book also looks at other poets from the seventeenth century onwards, providing original accounts of their poetic and historical educations. An important resource for those teaching undergraduate and postgraduate courses in historiography and history and theory, Poetry for historians will also be of relevance to courses on literature in society and the history of education. General readers will relate it to Steedman's Landscape for a Good Woman (1987) and Dust (2001), on account of its biographical and autobiographical insights into the way history operates in modern society.<br><p/><br></br><p><b> From the Back Cover </b></p></br></br>This book is about the long, convoluted relationship between poets and historians, poetry and history. Sometimes antagonistic, sometimes harmonious, this relationship has always been a kind of love story. Using the poetry of W. H. Auden as a lens, Carolyn Steedman examines developments in academic, public and popular history. In doing so, she provides a new 'history of History', encompassing history writing, historical thinking and history-in-society. Her ultimate aim is to shed light on the poetics of the very idea of 'history' itself, to challenge the philosophical assumptions that separate one field from the other and to reflect on the choices available, in different times and places, for 'telling what had been'. Readers of Steedman's influential <i>Landscape for a Good Woman </i>and <i>Dust </i>will find much to enjoy in <i>Poetry for historians</i>. The book will be useful in historiography and historical-methods classes at undergraduate and postgraduate level and for sociologists teaching 'literature in society'. At the same time, it will appeal to anyone interested in W. H. Auden, the history of education, the social history of twentieth-century Britain and the social uses of poetry and other literature. Steedman has always had in mind those readers, academic and otherwise, who 'don't see the point of poetry'. She hopes to make them laugh in order to see its point, historically and in other ways.<p/><br></br><p><b> Review Quotes </b></p></br></br><br>'[This book] will be a must-read as much for literary critics of W. H. Auden as historians of the twentieth century, for eighteenth centuryists of any discipline, and for anyone who wants to think about what constitutes history writing, or, indeed, to think about the journey of the Left over the past few decades and where it might end up.' Jon Mee, Professor of Eighteenth-century Studies, University of York 'Witty, acute, eloquent, ruthlessly confessional and riveting, <i>Poetry for historians</i> refuses to leave poetry to poets. It also proves Steedman to be the poet of history par excellence.' Roger Cooter, Emeritus Professor of History, UCL 'It's very hard to think of other historians who move so creatively in quite the same way across various kinds of borders, where the latter are not so much the boundaries between academic disciplines as the differences between familiar and more imaginative forms of knowledge and thought. With an exceptional eye for the unexpected insights and meanings, Carolyn Steedman roams brilliantly among a wide variety of genres and practices of writing and public performance, while pushing carefully on how we can understand them.' Geoff Eley, Karl Pohrt Distinguished University Professor of Contemporary History, University of Michigan 'Steedman's reflection on W. H. Auden's use of the idea of Clio in his poetry is wonderful, a love letter to poetry and historiography, and to the intersections of the two, as well as a passionate personal explanation of what is social history. [...] It is a book I enjoyed enormously.' Christopher Fauske, <i>Anglican and Episcopal History </i><br><p/><br></br><p><b> About the Author </b></p></br></br><br><strong>Carolyn Steedman</strong> is Emeritus Professor of History at the University of Warwick<br>
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