Representation

Representation offers a subtle account of the affinities between Leibnizian philosophy and the discipline of history. Frank Ankersmit is the most significant philosopher of history of the last forty years, and Representation his most thought-provoking work. From what might seem an unlikely quarter, and quite surprisingly, Ankersmit ends up laying down a defense of academic historiography from its enemies, those who deny that it can ever be an empirical science. -- Allan Megill, author of Historical Knowledge, Historical Error: A Contemporary Guide to Practice
In his impressive and timely book Representation, Ankersmit offers a powerful challenge to many received assumptions about the nature of historical writing. Drawing on Leibniz to unravel the secrets of historical representation, this book lucidly argues that historical reality first comes into being when the past ceases to exist. This is philosophy of history at its best. -- Chiel van den Akker, author of The Exemplifying Past: A Philosophy of History
By way of a careful and highly original reading of Leibniz, Ankersmit demonstrates that the present nonexistence of the past is (contrary to much historical theorizing of the past half-century) no barrier to rendering true statements about pasts in the form of history. This masterful book also shows that philosophers of history and academic historians have nothing to fear and a great deal to learn from each other’s practices. -- Daniel Woolf, author of The Social Circulation of the Past