Abstract
Although this article is meant to introduce five recently published books on contemporary Western theories of history to professional historians in Taiwan and other Chinese-reading academics, it is neither a composite book review nor a review article on the theoretical matters involved. Instead, the viewpoint adopted here is primarily pedagogical. That is, while summarizing the content and structure of the books, the main orientation of the evaluation has to do with the practice of teaching history and theory. In this regard, the most suitable type of reading material for an introductory course on contemporary Western theories of history, given the linguistic and cultural limitations of local students of history, is the genre of "readers," or collected essays; these constitute an acceptable compromise between textbooks, which tend to dilute the sophistication of theories, and the theoretical masterpieces, most of which are notoriously difficult to read in the original, not to mention in translation. Readers not only provide a more dynamic picture of the state of affairs in the field but also serve as a guide for the newcomer in discerning discursive communities and formulating one's own institutional affiliations and intellectual identities.