Ulinka Rublack (ed.) A concise companion to history (book review)

The somewhat conventional choice of jacket imagery – detail of Clio, the muse of history from Vermeer’s The Art of Painting – belies the ambitious aims of Dr Ulinka Rublack’s Concise Companion to History. It sets out to be a ‘guide to be inspired by and rethink history’ (p. viii) in a context where the old certainties of practice within the discipline – as well as the clarity of its boundaries – have broken down. The 16 chapters are divided into two parts. The first four cover issues around the writing of history, including R. Bin Wong on ‘Causation’ and Rublack’s own piece on the ‘Status of historical knowledge’. Part two is headed 'Themes and structures' and the titles provide an indication of the breadth of the editor’s enterprise: from Kenneth Pomeranz on ‘Commerce’ and Pat Thane on ‘Population’ to Elizabeth Buettner on ‘Ethnicity’, Peter Burke on ‘Communication’ and Miri Rubin on ‘Religion’. Rublack’s thoughtful sequencing of the chapters works well, and particularly on reflection, as some rich, creative and unexpected resonances between chapters come to the surface. [opening paragraphs]