What is intellectual history?

The fascinating, rich in meanings and the laconic book of Richard Watmore, the leading representative of intellectual history in the English -speaking world, gives clear answers to complex questions. Why and how do scientists reconstruct the ideas and worldviews of people who have gone? How closely this discipline is associated with the development of political thought? When does a social need arise for this type of knowledge? The author traces the evolution of the approach from the first experiments of Hume and Montesquieu until recent work of Skinner, Hont or Darnton, talks about the big discoveries of intellectual historians in the field of political philosophy of the New Age and answers basic theoretical questions. Watmore shows how philosophical, scientific, political, religious and artistic ideas are born and are formed in various historical contexts, and then they themselves have a direct influence on the development of society and decisions of people. Meet the reader to the current state of intellectual history, the scientist offers his own - affordable and convincing - determining the boundaries of this discipline.
Richard Watmore - professor of modern history and director of the Institute of Intellectual History at St. Andrews University