Past Futures: The Impossible Necessity of HistoryBy nature, human beings seek to make sense of their past. Paradoxically, true historical explanation is ultimately impossible. Historians never have complete evidence from the past, nor is their methodology rigorous enough to prove causal links. Although it cannot be proven that 'A caused B,' by redefining the agenda of historical discourse, scholars can locate events in time and place history once again at the heart of intellectual activity. In Past Futures, Ged Martin advocates examining the decisions that people take, most of which are not the result of a 'process,' but are reached intuitively. Subsequent rationalizations that constitute historical evidence simply mislead. All historians can do is to locate them in time, to explain not why a decision was taken, but why then? To illustrate, Martin asks a number of questions: What is a 'long time' in history? Are we close to the past or remote from it? Is democracy a recent experiment, or proof of our arrival at the end of a journey through time? Can we engage in a historical dialogue with the past without making clear our own ethical standpoints? Although explanation is ultimately impossible, humankind can make sense of its location in time through the concept of 'significance,' a device for highlighting events and aspects of the past. In so doing, Martin suggests a radical new approach to historical discourse. |
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... examples are drawn from areas of history that happen to interest me ( and in which I am not necessarily an ' expert ' ) . Those who delve into the Notes will find that I have cited many paperback or reprint editions of historical works ...
... examples are also cited , in the hope that there is still sufficient shared knowledge of events such as the two world wars of the twentieth century to render possible some degree of informed historical debate among a wider reading ...
... example of a story that has been vividly rewritten is that of the Battle of the Atlantic in the Second World War . From 1940 , when the German navy gained bases on the west coast of France , through to the end of 1942 , U - boats ...
... example proves precisely the reverse : the pertinent evi- dence did come to light and , as a result , we now know how the U - boats were beaten in the battle of the Atlantic . Well , maybe . We still do not know , for instance , how it ...
... example is the hypothesis , deduced from a study of the accounts of the royal household in fourteenth - century England , that Richard II invented the pocket hand- kerchief . It is a cameo that helps us to understand why the king was ...
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Past Futures: The Impossible Necessity of History: Based on the 1996 Joanne ... Ged Martin No preview available - 2004 |