"The contemporary history handbook is the essential guide to anyone studying, researching or simply interested in the contemporary period. It presents a collection of accessible and challenging essays on major debates about the recent past and a set of comprehensive and invaluable guides to contemporary sources." "The volume is divided into three main sections, which together comprise a reference work for contemporary historians who wish to explore the recent past in conventional ways and for those who are pushing the boundaries and expanding the definitions of what constitutes contemporary history. The first section, debates in contemporary history, comprises a series of essays which cover issues as diverse as postmodernism, world security, the end of history, gender and multi-racialism. The section concludes with a defence of the role of the historian in the contemporary world by Eric Hobsbawm. The second section fulfils Barraclough's demand that contemporary history include global perspectives by analyzing the current debates among commentators and historians on Western and Eastern Europe, the USA, Latin America, Japan, China, Africa, Russia and the Indian sub-continent. The final section on sources for contemporary history covers the problems and possibilities of conventional primary sources - for instance private papers, parliamentary records and the PRO - and it examines the importance of uniquely contemporary sources such as television, computers, multimedia and living witnesses. The handbook concludes with useful addresses and other information." "The contemporary history handbook offers a cohesive yet broad-based overview of contemporary history and the tools for its study by leading experts in the field. It is both a perfect reference guide and a stimulating contribution to the field which should be useful and provocative for students, researchers and specialists."--BOOK JACKET.