Book excerpt: This volume, originally published in 1980 discusses the way in which distinguished historians such as Gibbon, Ranke, Macaulay, De Tocqueville, Marx, Maitland, Bloch, Namier, Wheeler, Butterfield and Braudel have regarded and tackled their discipline. As well as chapters by individual authors who are experts on their chosen historian, there is a substantial introduction by the editor which serves as the basis for a discussion about the problems involved in the writing of history.