Books like Ideals and Idols by E. H. Gombrich

E. H. Gombrich’s classic survey traces the evolution of visual culture from ancient times through the modern era, offering an accessible and insightful history of art.

A concise examination of how history shapes our thoughts and decisions, highlighting both its enlightening potential and the dangers of its misuse.

"The hundred-year history of modern art ..."

An introductory survey of historians' views on the nature and purpose of history, focusing on classical and early-modern periods and contemporary debates.

Chapters concerning Hegel's philosophy of history.

From reliable sources is an introduction to historical methodology, an overview of the techniques historians must master in order to reconstruct the past. Its focus is on the basics of source criticism and is a guide for all students of history and for anyone who must extract meaning from written and unwritten sources. Martha Howell and Walter Prevenier explore the methods employed by historians to establish the reliability of materials; how they choose, authenticate, decode, compare, and, finally, interpret those sources. Illustrating their discussion with examples from the distant past as well as more contemporary events, they pay particular attention to recent information media, such as television, film, and videotape. The authors do not subscribe to the positivist belief that the historian can attain objective and total knowledge of the past. Instead, they argue that each generation of historians develops its own perspective, and that our understanding of the past is constantly reshaped by the historian and the world he or she inhabits.