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Biography about myself

Program: The Book Show. Professor Barbara Caine on how we should understand the relationship between biography and history and the role of the personal in the past. In the introduction to his biography of American president Thomas Jefferson, historian Arthur Schlesinger said that one of the main purposes of biography was to remind us that 'the great public figures of our time The best biographies often provide insight into the intimate lives of important historical figures -- which might help explain why they are so popular with readers.

Some historians are uncomfortable with biography because of the way it personalises the past. Others increasingly incorporate individual life stories in their work in an effort to make history richer and to convey not just events, but emotions and experiences. Peter Mares : In the introduction to his biography of American president Thomas Jefferson, historian Arthur Schlesinger said that one of the main purposes of biography was to remind us that 'the great public figures also put on their pants one leg at a time'.

The best biographies often provide insight into the intimate lives of important historical figures, which might help explain why biography is so popular with readers. Others increasingly incorporate individual life stories into their work in an effort to make history richer and to convey not just events, but also emotions and experiences.

So how should we understand the relationship between biography and history and the role of the personal in the past?

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Professor Barbara Caine is head of the School of Philosophical and Historical Inquiry at the University of Sydney, and the author of several books, including most recently Biography and History. Barbara Caine, welcome to The Book Show. Barbara Caine : That's a very big question. I suppose in a general way people would think about history as telling one about societies, nations, international orders, institutions, wereas biography deals much more with individual lives.

It's a distinction that was drawn a very, very long time ago by Plutarch and he argued that he did biography because he dealt with the personal and the intimate, in a way, those aspects of people's lives and not just their public actions. So I suppose that is one of the other things about biography, that history has often dealt with major individuals but biography tends to be more interested in the inner person or the relationship between the private person and the public world.