1928 – 2018
Hayden White (1928–2018) was an American historian and philosopher of history best known for his theory of historiography as narrative construction. His landmark work Metahistory (1973) argued that historical writing is shaped by literary tropes and rhetorical strategies, not purely by evidence. He was a central figure in the linguistic turn in historical theory and influenced debates across history, literary theory, and philosophy.
Authored Metahistory (1973), founding text of narrativist philosophy of history
Developed the theory of 'emplotment' — that historians impose literary plot structures on the past
Argued that historical discourse is tropological, shaped by metaphor, metonymy, synecdoche, and irony
Influenced the linguistic turn in historiography and humanities broadly
Taught at UC Santa Cruz and Stanford; shaped generations of historians and theorists