Controversial ideas on exemplification, narrative truth, patterns, images, and the historian's task.
After History aims to provide a description of the most general features of historical thought. It poses questions such as: What is historical consciousness? Why does history depend on narrative? And what do we mean when we say that we live in post-historical times? It appears that certain conditions need to obtain if we are to take and treat ourselves as historical beings.
The book is devoted to history as a mode of thought, narrative, computation, and modernism in the visual arts. It sets out the continuing relevance of Arthur Danto's philosophy of history and that of related authors such as Frank Ankersmit, Louis Mink, and Walter Benjamin. The author advances new and at times controversial ideas on exemplification, narrative truth, patterns, images, and the historian's task.