History as Wonder

'This is a timely and fascinating interdisciplinary analysis of the global development of historiography and its intersections with the role that wonder plays in processes of knowledge production.'

Claire Norton, St Mary's University, UK

'What is it that draws all peoples and cultures no matter time or place to history? And what is it that makes history such a powerful and indispensable category? In her capacious, original, and beautifully written book Marnie Hughes-Warrington argues that it is wonder. Using wonder as her analytic lens, Hughes-Warrington crafts a history of history unlike any before it weaving analysis of traditional historical texts, philosophical treaties, and other works such as film and literature that fall beyond the range typically covered in surveys of the historical discipline. In this way, Hughes-Warrington offers a history of history that ranges far beyond the quotidian limits of what might be considered conventional history and into the way history is utilized by different cultures in different places and different times. For Hughes-Warrington, wonder is the beginning of history, it is a disposition exercised by people in different times and places and as such it is a constant shared by all historical traditions no matter how diverse or disparate they may appear. What’s more Hughes-Warrington tells us that attunement to the wonder that underpins our historical impulse also makes us open to new and different forms of history that have yet to appear. One thing is certain, once you’ve read Marnie Hughes-Warrington’s book you will see the history of history in a whole new way: as a history filled with wonder.'

Ethan Kleinberg, Wesleyan University, USA