Biography: An Historiography examines how Western historians have used biography from the nineteenth century to the present - considering the problems and challenges that historians have faced in their biographical practice systematically.

This volume analyses the strategies and methods that historians have used in response to seven major issues identified over time to do with evidence, including but not limited to the problem of causation, the problem of fact and fiction, the problem of other minds, the problem of significance or representativeness, the problems of perspective, both macro and micro, and the problem of subjectivity and relative truth.

This volume will be essential for both postgraduates and historians studying biography.

About the Author

Melanie Nolan is Professor of History, Director of the National Centre of Biography, and General Editor of the Australian Dictionary of Biography, in the School of History, at the Australian National University.

Reviews

"A hugely enjoyable read, deeply researched and knowledgeable, with an effective mix of structure, theory, and personality, as befits its subject. Very wide-ranging, it's peppered with names and connections. In squaring a number of circles, Biography: a Historiography is a single-handed refutation of any misgivings historians may have as to the biographer and their craft."

Martin Farr, Newcastle University, UK

"[I]t's a big, authoritative work with a dazzling range of research and reference, and passionate engagement with ideas and issues. A book to think with!"

Richard Holmes, FRSL, FBA, OBE, Hon. Fellow of Churchill College Cambridge

"This is a most welcome addition to the literature on biography which will be attractive to readers in several different disciplines. Historians will like its very firm grounding in the development of historical writing since the nineteenth century; students of literature will learn much from its studies of the Bloomsbury biographers and life writing today; while social scientists will find much to explore and applaud in its confident discussion of concepts and methodology. The discussion of biography is integrated with the discussion of general historiography. Our pre-existing historiographical familiarity helps us to appreciate the novelty of the author's biographical arguments all the more."

Lawrence Goldman, Oxford University, UK

"There are numerous monographs on biography as a genre but no single text dealing with historians and biography, and yet historians are a major producer of biographies. Melanie Nolan's Biography: A Historiography provides the first systematic and focussed consideration of historians' biographical approaches and practices. It is a far ranging and much needed work, competently executed and underpinned by an impressive array of research."

Douglas Munro, University of Queensland, Australia

"Here is a rich, layered, archaeological study of the art and craft and science of biography by a scholar who has a unique overview of the practice in Australasia today."

Tom Griffiths, Biography Footnotes, no.24 (December 2023)

"As the first book to systematically examine the intersections between historians' theoretical and methodological debates and their biographical practice from the Victorian era to the present, Biography: An Historiography will inspire much reflection and debate ... It is without a doubt one of the most important texts to appear in the field of biography studies in the last decade and is destined to end up on syllabi wherever graduate classes on biography - and historiography - are taught."

Daniel R. Meister, Australian Journal of Biography and History, no.8 (2024)

"Biography: An historiography compels us to value the work and debates of historians' biographies as richly creative and not derivative. It showcases how biography is intertwined with contested issues related to agency, truth, memory, and identity. This book is an essential read for anyone interested in biographies or methodologies for historians. Nolan has created an invaluable guide to a vital but neglected dimension of historical practice. For these reasons, Biography: An Historiography demands attention from all scholars and students of life writing."

Tiping Su, (2023)

Book Information
ISBN 9781138387232
Author Melanie Nolan
Format Hardback
Page Count 384
Imprint Routledge
Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd
Weight(grams) 453g