Making sense of the past is always a challenge for the historian. Common to all periods and specialisms is the attempt to find new modes of historical narrative. This wide-ranging overview of recent trends and the changing agenda of historical questions compares new approaches - chronological, thematic, regional - not only in the various historical fields - ancient, medieval, modern and early modern history, political, social, economic and business history, maritime history, diaspora history and gender history - but also for human history as a whole. The result will be essential reading for all those concerned with current developments in historiography.