despite a history extending over 2000 years the status of history as a discipline remains unresolved.if few now accept J.B.Bury's dictum that 'history is a science, no more and no less', 1 equally few agree upon an alternative. it is not that there is any real dispute about is subject-matter. history is by common consent the study of man's past;and more spefically man as a social being rather t…