Page "Hugh Trevor-Roper" Paragraph 8

Trevor-Roper argued that history should be understood as an art, not a science, and asserted that the key attribute of the successful historian was the power of imagination.

For Trevor-Roper, history was full of contingency, and the story of the past was neither a continuous advance nor decline, but was rather resolved by accident and through the particular choices that particular individuals made in the time at question.

Though Trevor-Roper often acknowledged the impact of social trends upon history, in his view, it was the actions of the individuals that made the difference.

However, in his studies of early modern Europe, Trevor-Roper did not focus exclusively upon political history, but rather sought to examine the interaction between the political, intellectual, social and religious trends of the period.

His preferred medium for expressing himself was the essay rather the book.

In his essays in social history, written during the 1950s and ' 60s, Trevor-Roper was increasingly influenced by — though he never formally embraced the work of — the French Annales School, especially Fernand Braudel, and did much to introduce the work of the Annales school to the English-speaking world.