The fantasy that is history
Everything that has ever existed in the past is no more. All our archives and archeological founding are clues to give us some idea of the past, but there is no more past. It has become present, and glides into future. Historians have the job to reconstruct the past, in order to correct the sense of history, but in picking their subjects of research they are mostly adding their own sense of history. In this fashion history directly correlates with the present minds of historians. In imperialist times historians wrote national histories. In revolutionary times, historians wrote revolutionary histories and now we write world histories, gender histories and cultural histories. Still, governments pay historians to do this. Apparently historical research has some value.
Still, there is growing awareness of this historical subjectivity and more and more scholars define their field of research and point at it's shortcomings before they start their own exposition. But is it possible to bring this awareness to the people?
posted by jonathan even-zohar @ 10:46
3 comments
It was after the Gulf War that his mother and boyfriend at the time decided to 'descend' from the Holy land and set sail towards The Hague, being the birthplace of Even-Zohars
mother. Jonathan managed well in Grade school and High school, so the
next logical step was the University, the infinite source of knowledge.
After speculating on Industrial Design, Social Geography and Journalism
it was the study of History at Leiden that turned out to be his
decision.
Now, four years into the study, matters have only become more
complicated as this student advances towards World History; meaning the
complete array of fields a historian may implement in explaining the
entire past of the entire world to fellow men. It is especially the
philosophical character of World History that attracted Jonathan.
For him there is only one question that stands above all others like a
lonely chuchtower in some Flemish village, which asks the cause of the
Western Rise and the Industrial Revolution. Furthermore, the role of the
European self- and worldimage throughout its history may explain the
role of Europe in the Eurasian Human Web. Thus, the direct contact
between Islam and Christianity is to be investigated. Were Muslims
constantly on the verge of invading Europe? How did Arab people perceive
the 'barbaric' Christians? How was Science spread and how did the West
pick up knowledge form the Arabs or from further East? Europe and the
Islam are still not at peace, certainly not in the mind.
3 Comments:
He man,
The fact that governments spend on history research is no proof of that research having any value. I do agree that historians cannot get around a time dictated view. However, noone can get around this view. Everyone is caught within a horizon through which we view the world, historians can only fit into this horizon to achieve a succesful description of history in the eyes of others, and his own.
-How else can you measure value? I thought money spent by governments was a good indicator for value.
That the government spents money, only indicates that they value it. History can be biast by that fact. Historians must eat. I value history because we can learn from te past
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