Abstract：This paper traces the life and academic background of Jacob Burckhardt,one of the most historians of the 19~(th) century,pointing out that he was mainly interested in cultural history.But his idea about cultural history was not purely intellectual,it was more like contemporary idea about history of civilization,showing the general outlook of an age by describing development of civilization.Having analyzed the contents of his main works,this paper tries to demonstrate that Burckhardt's idea about history is that history is art,not science because history contains ideology,even imagination.However,his main works are still very valuable though they are more than 100 years old.
