SOURCE: Gottfried, Paul E. Review of On Looking into the Abyss, by Gertrude Himmelfarb. Society 32, no. 1 (November-December 1994): 83-4.

In the following review of On Looking into the Abyss, Gottfried observes that the central argument unifying the essays in this volume is Himmelfarb's defense of old historical tradition against postmodern theories.

Gertrude Himmelfarb's latest anthology of essays [On Looking into the Abyss] contains no revisionist surprises; nor do the responses to it suggest that either her critics or well-wishers have fallen out of step. Having established a well-documented reputation as a scorner of postmodernist history and as an admirer of Victorian biographical approaches to her subject, Himmelfarb does not give ground here. Feminist, “value-free,” and deconstructiontist historians all receive elegant whacks; and blaming them as people who should know better, Himmelfarb also investigates critically the French Annalistes, particularly the late Fernand Braudel. The unwillingness of the Annalistes to recognize...