Daniel Woolf is Professor of History at Queen's University, Ontario. He is the author of several books, including A Global History of History (Cambridge, 2011), the award-winning The Social Circulation of the Past (2003), Reading History in Early Modern England (Cambridge, 2001), and The Idea of History in Early Stuart England (1991). He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, of the Society of Antiquaries of London, and the Royal Society of Canada.

• Introduction; 1. The earliest forms of historical writing; 2. History in Eurasia to the mid-fifteenth century; 3. The sense of the past, 1450–1700; 4. Enlightenment, revolution and reaction, c.1700–1830; 5. Disciplining the past: professionalization, imperialism and science, 1830–1945; 6. Transitions: historical writing from the inter-war period to the present; 7. Where do we go from here? Reflections, new directions and prognostications.

'A Concise History of History presents a truly global approach to the writing of history from ancient times to the present, integrating historiographical traditions from across the world into a pluralistic story. In a clear authorial voice shaped by years of teaching, Woolf examines history's multivocal past and speculates about its future.' Merry Wiesner-Hanks, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee