This book examines the evolution of historical professionalism, with the development of an international community that shares a set of values regarding both methodological minimum demands and what constitutes new results. Historical professionalism is not a fixed set of skills, but a concept with varying import and meaning at different times depending on changing norms. Torstendahl covers the propagation of these different ideals and of new educational forms from the late 18th century to the present, from Ranke's state-centrism to a historiography borne by social theories.
Introduction 1. History-Writing, Fragmentation, and Professionalism 2. History-Writing as Professional Production of Knowledge 3. Historical Professionalism: A Changing Product of Communities Within the Discipline 4. A Return of Historismus?: Neo-Institutionalism and the Historical Turn of The Social Sciences 5. Disputations, Seminars, and the Professional Community: The Break with All-Round Education for Professional Historians 6. Fact, Truth, and Text: The Quest for a Firm Basis for Historical Knowledge Around 1900 7. Integration and Fragmentation of History: The International Historical Congresses 8. Global Professionalism and Global History 9. Entertainment, Narratives, Micro, and Macro - Versus Problems 10. "New Results" and "Scientific Revolutions" in History 11. Concluding Remarks
