Abstract

Introduction : rethinking historical distance : from doctrine to heuristic -- Machiavelli between history and chronicle -- A study in contrasts : Machiavelli, Guicciardini, and the idea of example -- "The most illustrious philosopher and historian of the age" : Hume and the balances of enlightenment history -- "What sympathy then touches every human heart!" : emotional identification in enlightenment and romantic histories -- Hundred Scottish ministers write the history of everyday life : contrasting distances in Sinclair's "Statistical account of Scotland" -- Past and present : contrastive narratives in the romantic age -- "The very web and texture of society as it really exists" : literary history in historiographical perspective -- "A topic that history will proudly record", or, What is the "history" in history painting? -- On the advantage and disadvantage of sentimental history for life -- Alternative histories in the public realm : familiarizing and defamiliarizing the past -- Epilogue : My Lai and moral luck, or, 'Tis forty years since.