Metahistory

Metahistory is a field of study that examines how historical narratives are constructed, rather than focusing solely on the events themselves. The term gained prominence through Hayden White's Metahistory: The Historical Imagination in Nineteenth-Century Europe (1973), in which he argues that historical writing is not a transparent record of events but a form of storytelling that uses literary and conceptual structures to shape meaning.

White introduces the idea of emplotment, whereby historians plot facts into familiar narrative forms such as romance, tragedy, comedy, and satire. He also highlights the role of tropes, causation schemes, and the selection and organization of evidence in determining what counts as history. In this view, historical explanation is inseparable from representation, ideology, and rhetorical strategy, raising questions about objectivity and the nature of historical truth.

Metahistorical analysis extends beyond politics and biography to consider how disciplinary conventions (for example, positivism, romantic nationalism, liberal historiography) and cultural contexts influence what counts as credible history. It has influenced historiography, philosophy of history, and literary criticism by encouraging reflexivity about sources, narrative structure, and the political implications of historical narratives.

Critics contend that such an approach risks relativism or denies empirical grounding. Proponents argue that recognizing narrative construction clarifies bias and fosters more explicit historiography. The term has since been used more broadly to describe studies of the conditions and structures of historical explanation rather than to name a single school of thought.