On The Historiography Of Peter Novick

Peter Novick is one of the most distinguished American historians in the 20 th century.His work That Noble Dream: The “Objectivity Question” and the American Historical Profession recorded most of his thoughts in historiography.Based on That Noble Dream,the thesis aims at making a relative comprehensive illustration on the historical thoughts of Peter Novick.“Historical Objectivity” is one of the important part of Novick’s historiography.By discussing the concept of objectivity,therefore,it is beneficial to understand the connotation and current trends of American historiography.Following the development of Novick’s objectivity theory,the thesis expounds the objectivity from its process of generation,strengthening,consolidation and weakening.The innovation lies in absorbing the influence of the two world wars into the discussion of Novick’s historical objectivity to explore the influence of the world war on American objectivity.Another important part of Novick’s historiography is the interpretation of professionalization of American historiography.The research on the professionalization of American historiography can be an important starting point to understand the development of American historiography.On the one hand,it connects the American historical community;on the other hand,it connects every American historian as an independent individual.From both macroscopic and microscopic aspect of American historical development,the thesis discusses independent historians’ perception of the professional development of historiography.The contents begin with Novick’s understanding of the professional development of American historiography,and focus on the dynamic relationship between American historical professionalization and American historiography.The thesis is divided into three parts: introduction,body and conclusion.Here are four chapters.The main contents of each chapter are summarized as follows:In the first chapter,the author tries to explore the influence of Novick’s social background and the development of American historiography on the formation of his historical thoughts,and on the basis of it analyze what the fundamental sequence of his thoughts is.In the second and third chapter,two core issues on Novick’s historiography from That Noble Dream are discussed: namely,the objectivity of historiography and the professionalization of American historiography.Then the interaction between them is delved into.In the fourth chapter,there is a comprehensive comment on the characteristics and shortcomings of Peter Novick’s historical thoughts with the reference to the Novick’s text and relevant literature.