Melvin Richter’s Contribution to the Reception of Begriffsgeschichte and to Its “Contextualization”

Abstract

This article presents an account of those works, related to conceptual history and historiographical issues, written by the American historian of political thought Melvin Richter. The attention is primarily directed toward the reception of the German historiographical style called “Begriffsgeschichte” (“history of concepts”), and especially on its reception among Anglophone scholars. Therefore, the main objective of the article is to throw light on Richter’s understanding of Begriffsgeschichte, and to sum up his efforts to put in contact Koselleck’s “history of concepts” with the works of authors such as Quentin Skinner and John G. A. Pocock, who are associated with the so-called “Cambridge school contextualists”. Thus, the aim is to point out their direct thought about Begriffsgeschichte, and consequently, to see how they’ve reacted to Richter’s proposals concerning the possibility of adopting that “history of concepts” as the frame for future historical researches. By doing so, and relying mainly on the extensive contributions appeared on the pages of the specialized periodicals, this article highlights some of the principal reactions to the theoretical and practical implications of “conceptual history”; in particular as they are emerging in the midst of what is indeed a recent and still ongoing international debate. Furthermore, the article tries to compare Koselleck’s Begriffsgeschichte with some works of “analytical bibliography” (which is a highly reliable form of physical and textual analysis of books). It is also interesting to note that these bibliographical studies are associated with Cambridge University as well as the historical researches of Skinner and Pocock.