• Pandarinath

Abstract: The article offers a brief survey of the main currents of historical thought and writing in the West since the eighteenth century. It begins with the emergence of a secular outlook in Enlightenment approaches to history. It then proceeds to the transformation of historical studies in the nineteenth century marked by professionalization. Strongly influenced by the work of Leopold von Ranke, historians saw their discipline as a science (Wissenschaft), scientific in the sense of reliance on the critical examination of the sources, distancing itself from nonprofessional amateur historians. Its approach to historical presentation in the form of narrative focusing largely on political events and political leaders differed sharply from broader generalizing approaches as represented in the philosophies of history in very different forms by Georg Friedrich Hegel, Karl Marx, and Auguste Comte. Although Ranke maintained a European perspective, his followers largely saw history in the service of the national state and nationalism. the identity of history as a discipline derives from its distinctive combination of intellectual assumptions, or categories. Many of these categories are shared with other fields of thought, including science, literature, and common sense, but in history are understood in a unique way. a survey of major trends of historical thought and writing since 1970 from a global perspective. The 1970s marked a turning away from analytical social science–oriented historical studies to interpretative cultural approaches. They also saw the inclusion of women, ethnic minorities, and formerly colonial peoples into historical accounts. The end of the Cold War marked a further reorientation in the 1990s and since. For the most part, the focus on culture and on previously neglected segments of the population continued but there was an increased turn away from Eurocentrism to global perspectives in historical writing.

IndexTerms - Historical Tradition, World History, Historical Thought, Historical interpretation.

"Recent Trends in Historical Thought", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.8, Issue 4, page no.896-906, April-2021, Available :http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR2104321.pdf

"Recent Trends in Historical Thought", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org | UGC and issn Approved), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.8, Issue 4, page no. pp896-906, April-2021, Available at : http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR2104321.pdf