ABSTRACT
Some idealist historians claim that all history is present, or contemporary. History is a product of the life and mind of the historian here and now. Some positivists claim that history is a weak science of description, if not prediction, which can approximate the truth about a past that really existed. But history is a large tent under which sit many historians of different interests, from intellectual history to material culture, from cultural history to economic history. There is room for all, except perhaps for those who wish to tear down the tent.
