Postmodernism and The Nature of History

Abstract I focus in this paper on some recent exchanges between postmodern and empirical historians and argue that the significance of the debate has been misunderstood. In particular, I attempt to show that although there are real differences between them – not least in the importance accorded to values in the creation of historical knowledge – both sides nevertheless share a common epistemological base and that this calls into question the radicality of the postmodern challenge to mainstream historiography