E. H. Carr

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What is History?

'Not only one of our most distinguished historians but also one of the most valuable contributors to historical theory' Spectator 
 
In formulating an answer to the question of 'What is History', Carr argues that the 'facts' of history are simply those which historians have chosen to focus on. All historical facts come to us as a result of interpretive choices by historians influenced by the standards of their age. 
 
Now for the first time in Penguin Modern Classics, with an introduction by Richard J. Evans, author of the Third Reich trilogy.

Edward Hallett Carr was born in 1892. He joined the Foreign Office in 1916 and worked there in many roles until 1936 when he became Woodrow Wilson Professor of International Politics at the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth. After the war he became a Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford and then of Trinity College, Cambridge. His major work was the 14-volume A History of Soviet Russia (published 1950-78). What Is History? is based on his Trevelyan Lectures, delivered in 1961. He died in 1982.

'E.H. Carr, author of the monumental History of Soviet Russia, now proves himself to be not only one of our most distinguished historians but also one of the most valuable contributors to historical theory' Spectator 
 
In formulating an answer to the question of 'What is History', Carr argues that the 'facts' of history are simply those which historians have chosen to focus on. All historical facts come to us as a result of interpretive choices by historians influenced by the standards of their age. 
 
Now for the first time in Penguin Modern Classics, with an introduction by Richard J. Evans, author of the Third Reich trilogy.

What is History?

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