i read through AJP Taylor's The Course of German History today, instead of studying for s econs (urgh).

and i think it's pretty inspiring. well maybe he does exaggerate a bit here and there (i suspect for rhetorical effect) i think he's a really great historian. no doubt controversial, but great nonetheless. he is someone who combined within a single book a grand perspective encompassing an understanding of economic and social statistics, an acquaintance with personality and strategy, and an empathy with ideas and culture. it is an all encompassing view, and it comes as close as, in my opinion, to total history, despite the book's remarkable brevity. total history is not the number crunching of cliometricians and economists, nor the philosophical abstractions of hegelian dialectic, nor the socio-economic generalizations of marxist belief. it is giving due weight to the various factors that propel a society or hold it back - the ideas and philosophies of professors, the ebb and flow of commerce, the speeches of demagogues and politicians, the brute force of the mob, the bayonets of soldiers, the manoeuvrings of statesmen, the fires of industry, the psychology of nations. it is to give due credit to the faceless impersonal masses in the unstoppable stream of time, as well the spectacular eruptions of great men.

despite his determinist inclinations, he does take into account the contributions of individuals, but then again ties their behaviours and actions back to the societal and ideological forces which gave rise to them in the first place. in doing so he presents a continuous and convincing view of german history from charles v to hitler, one that is both elegant and lucid.

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i think a historian's pen can pour forth more drama and more emotion, potentially, than the pen of a writer or the pen of a poet - and additionally most (if not all) of it is true, and hence it perhaps achieves a deeper degree of poignancy, even if it is not as floridly dressed up as a work of fiction or a work of poetry. the reader, at least, does not have to go through a willing suspension of disbelief - it is real. real people, real events, real happenings which are created by the complex interactions of thought and actions of many masses of men, not merely the product of a single tortured imagination.

the writer looks into the soul of invented people, the poet into his own soul - but a great historian looks into and grasps the souls of societies.