Identifying fifty key thinkers in history is not an easy task. Obviously, any list I come up with, even with the help of a number of other historians, will not be universally agreed upon. Every historian has a different view of who should be included ...
Identifying fifty key thinkers in history is not an easy task. Obviously, any list I come up with, even with the help of a number of other historians, will not be universally agreed upon. Every historian has a different view of who should be included in this list and why. But this doesn't make me sad for two reasons: First, the fifty key thinkers of history don't explicitly include the fifty great historians of all ages based on their fame. Many of the thinkers I have chosen would certainly belong on such a list, for example, Gibbon Ranke and Thucydides, but the presence of other thinkers on this list is more likely to confuse historians than even the top fifty historians in terms of influence or importance. It is not included, but as I will explain below, most of the names of those whose views are challenging are seen in it. The second reason, which is more important, is that my goal is not to get everyone to agree. In fact, I'd be disappointed if readers liked all of my choices because consensus usually means the end of the discussion. Nor do I have this dream of trying to convince the readers to agree with me and unquestioningly accept the views and opinions of every thinker they come across in this book. In principle, my choices are such that such a thing is impossible, for example trying to reconcile the opinions of Geoffrey Elton and Hayden White or even Mark Bloch and Lucien Faure is not possible. In my view, one of the characteristics of "key thinkers" is to provoke controversy.
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