ABSTRACT
The dividing line between histories—the proper works of historians—memoirs, and newspapers is difficult to define. The Jesuits who controlled the educational systems of Catholic Europe until the dissolution of the Order in 1773 paid little attention to history; neglect of this kind had its inevitable results. German universities were more favourably organised for advanced study; the development of modern historical methods began primarily in Germany, and made itself felt in the field of ancient history, and often as a by-product of philology and textual criticism. German historians and scholars were quick to see the political importance of their subject. The development of historical studies in France was long inferior to their progress in Germany. The political changes in Germany were ‘historical’ in character; the French revolutions of the nineteenth century were attempts to break away from the historical past.
