SOURCE: Levine, Joseph M. “Objectivity in History: Peter Novick and R. G. Collingwood.” CLIO 21, no. 2 (winter 1992): 109-27.

In the following essay, Levine observes that That Noble Dream is both “useful and timely” for historians as a reminder of the current state of crisis in historical scholarship.

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Peter Novick's That Noble Dream is useful and timely, for it reminds us that the historical profession is indeed in crisis, that its traditional convictions about the point and purpose of history have been challenged and cannot be left to stand in their original formulation, and that some sort of answer may be required. Novick himself doesn't attempt one; he is content to describe how the problem arose, and if anything seems to enjoy the prospect of uncertainty that it suggests. Since he doesn't believe in objectivity, he cheerfully takes sides with the dissidents, though he proclaims his own fairmindedness. Whether this...