| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 111.2

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| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 111.2 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Methods/Theory

Jeremy D. Popkin. History, Historians, and Autobiography. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 2005. Pp. x, 339. $35.00.

In recent years autobiographies have become ever more highly esteemed as sources for historical research. At the same time, more and more historians have themselves published their life stories. Jeremy D. Popkin analyzes both tendencies in this study on history, historians, and autobiography. He has read more than 300 autobiographies, mainly by English and American historians but also including French, German, Dutch, and Italian works. Popkin makes clear that this is a very interesting body of texts, because historians who have turned into autobiographers unconsciously demolish the existing wall between historiography and autobiography. When in the nineteenth century truth and objectivity became the professional standard among historians, the genre of autobiography fell into disgrace and was left to literary critics. Historians writing their life stories are, on the one hand, bound to the rules of this narrative and literary form, but, on the other hand, they are dedicated to the professional standards of their discipline. In fact, they are aware that their autobiographies are likely to be read more critically than those written by members of other professions. Their own life story should reinforce their historical work by showing truth and credibility.

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