This volume investigates the relationship between historical scholarship and the prevailing intellectual climate of the eras in which historians operate. Robert Allen Skotheim, a scholar of American intellectual history, compiles a selection of essays that examine how cultural, social, and political contexts influence the methodologies and interpretations of historical writers. The work argues that historical objectivity is often mediated by the specific 'climate of opinion' that shapes the historian's own worldview and research priorities.

Scholars and students of historiography frequently cite this text as a useful introduction to the challenges of maintaining objectivity in historical writing. Experts highlight the collection for its clear articulation of how external cultural pressures inevitably inform the academic study of the past.