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1933년 웨일즈에서 태어난 키스 토머스 경(Sir Keith Thomas)은 옥스퍼드에서 수학한 후 교수와 고급 관료라는 전혀 다른 성격의 삶을 병행해 왔다. 1971년 인류학과 역사학을 접목시킨 기념비적인 저작 『종교와 마술의 쇠퇴』(Religion and the Decline of Magic)를 필두로, 1983년 『인간과 자연』(Man and the Natural World), 그리고 2009년 『인생의 목적』(The Ends of Life)을 내어놓으며 위대한 역사가로 자리매김했다. 토머스의 위대함의 본질은 독특한 역사세계를 창조해 낸 그의 창의력에 있다. 그는 보수적인 학계에 신선한 주제를 소개했으며 학제적 접근을 통해 과거 영국인의 삶을 다양한 층위와 각도에서 심층적으로 파헤치는 한편 근대 초라는 시기를 역동적인 변화의 시기로 각인시켰다. 하지만 방대한 문필적 기록의 인용은 결국 엘리트중심적인 서사를 생산했고, 긍정적인 근대의 전형을 영국의 근대 초로 역추적 하는 휘그주의적 시각을 지니고 있다는 한계를 안고 있다.
Sir Keith Thomas is born in 1933 as the elder son of a Welsh tenant. He was educated at Barry County Grammar School and Balliol College, Oxford. He became a fellow of All Souls College, Oxford in 1955. His pupils remembered him as a brilliant and merciless expositor, and the cleverest man in Oxford. But since he became President of Corpus Christi College in 1986, he appeared to professionally retreat, acting academic haut fonctionnaire. Thomas’ most recent book, however, The Ends of Life (2009) testifies that he is still one of the most innovative historians in Britain. From the early 1960s he became interested in the relations between anthropology and history, and produced a interdisciplinary study, Religion and the Decline of Magic (1971). This celebrated book deals with the impact of the Reformation on the beliefs of ordinary people. In Man and the Natural World (1983) he argues that the early modern period saw a significant, even revolutionary change in man’s attitudes towards nature. In Ends of Life, he examines the ways that people answered the question “what makes for a meaningful life?”The style of his writing is an endless stream of quotes glued together with opening remarks or conclusions. This is from his own research technique, called the ‘one slip one fact’ method. His enormous supporting materials, however, are largely drawn from literary sources, the writings of social elites. He emphasizes the long, slow changes in mental outlook that characterizes the emergence of a modern world. This is why his historical perspective adhered closely to that of archetypal Whiggish tradition. Despite these shortcomings, Thomas is without doubt one of the greatest living historians. He pioneered diverse topics and expanded the scope of English social history. His works revolutionized the way in which historians approached the 16th and 17th centuries. Also, His study is truly a landmark in the handling of various social theories and historical documents within historical analysis.
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Keith Thomas, Interdisciplinary Approach, Anthropology, Early Modern England, Whiggish History
