Beverly Southgate's work, History: What and Why?, provides an extensive look into the essence and function of history. Examining what history is, and the role it serves in society, Southgate looks into the various topics that arise when historians, and others compare the traditional model of studying history to the post-modern direction it seems to be moving. Looking at early, modern, and most recently, post-modern ideas, Southgate examines the evolving methodology of studying history. Tracing it all the way back ancient Greece, Southgate provides interesting insights into the way history is studied. He also gives suggestions as to how it might be studied in the future. He brings to the attention of the reader that History, as a field of study, is an evolving idea. Southgate's main objective is to present evidence that allows the reader to see that even from its earliest days through the present, the method of studying of history is constantly being challenged. .
What Southgate attempts to do is to first explore what history is. By looking at early philosophical thinkers such as Aristotle, he looks at the early ideas about history. As he presents many thoughts, he moves towards defining the "traditional model of history." In his discussion, he tries to explain the past "as it was." The second part of Southgate's books discuses the challenges to this "traditional" way of studying history. He presents evidence that shows how the conventional views of historians have been challenged both external and internally. Southgate looks at outside influences such as the study of linguistics, and psychology that challenged the traditional method of studying history. From within the historical realm, he points to Marxism, feminism, and post-colonialism as three examples of the threats to the established way of studying history. Finally, moving into the third faze of his book, Southgate looks at the new post-modern trends that will affect the study of history into the future.
