A Companion to Intellectual History

A Companion to Intellectual History provides a unique and in–depth survey of the practice of intellectual history as a discipline, showcasing research undertaken by scholars in Britain, North America and the wider world from ancient times to the present. Its broad coverage incorporates every aspect of intellectual history as it is currently practiced, including the origins and method of intellectual history, its relationship with philosophy, religion, economics, politics and international relations, and the scholarly controversies to concern intellectual historians from ancient to modern times.

Written by leading researchers in the field, these 40 newly–commissioned chapters consider developments in intellectual history in relation to particular national/continental histories; they demonstrate the ways in which intellectual historians have contributed to more established disciplinary enquiries, from the history of science and medicine to literary studies, art history and the history of political thought. Several chapters provide an expert overview of the seminal writings by contemporary intellectual historians that have caused particular historiographical controversy, and contributors pay special attention to contemporary controversies in order to provide readers with the most current overview of the field. Essays are written in a clear and accessible manner, designed for an international audience.

Richard Whatmore is Professor of Modern History at the University of St Andrews and Director of the St Andrews Institute of Intellectual History. He is the author of Republicanism and the French Revolution (2000) and Against War and Empire (2012).