New Perspectives on the Past New Perspectives on the Past New Perspectives on the Past is a series of monographs on major issues in history. It was founded by R. I. Moore, is edited by Constantin Fasolt , and published by Blackwell Publishers , Oxford and Massachusetts.
History is one of many fields of knowledge.
The boundaries of history first acquired their modern shape in early modern Europe. A prodigious harvest has been gathered from the field bounded by those assumptions. Making a tentative beginning with the humanist discovery of antiquity, gaining confidence with the enlightenend critique of religion, and blossoming into full professionalization in the nineteenth century, modern historians have managed to turn their produce into an elementary ingredient in democratic education and a staple of cultural consumption. They have extracted mountains of evidence from archives and turned it into books whose truth can be assayed by anyone who cares to follow their instructions. They have dismantled ancient legends that had been handed down through the ages and laid them to rest in modern libraries.