Is it right for historians to serve as ‘expert witnesses’ to past events?
Since the end of the Cold War, a series of heated and politicised debates across Europe have questioned the ‘truth’ about painful episodes in the twentieth century. From the Holocaust to Srebrenica, inquiries and fact-finding commissions have become a common device employed by governments to deal with the pressure of public opinion. State-sponsored programmes of education and research attempt to encourage a common moral understanding of the lessons we learn from these painful memories. Contemporary historians have increasingly been drawn into these efforts since 1989 – in the courtroom, in the media, on commissions, as advisers. In a series of thoughtful essays, written by leading historians from across Europe, this volume considers the ethics and responsibilities that this new role entails.
For anyone concerned with the role of the historian in contemporary society and how we arrive at a public understanding of history, this book is essential reading.
Table of Content
Introduction – Harriet Jones, Kjell Östberg, and Nico Randeraad
1. The responsibility of the historian – Peter Mandler
2. Public uses of history in contemporary Europe – Klas-Göran Karlsson
3. Coming to terms with the (post-)colonial past in Belgium.The inquiry into the assassination of Patrice Lumumba – Georgi Verbeeck
4. The Bloody Sunday tribunal and the role of the historian – Paul Bew
5. Between scholarship and politics: experiences from the Commission on the Swedish Security Services – Karl Molin
6. Historical research where scholarship and politics meet. The case of Srebrenica – Hans Blom
7. Negotiated history? Bilateral historical commissions in twentieth-century Europe – Marina Cattaruzza and Sacha Zala
8. The Italo-Slovenian historico-cultural commission – Raoul Pupo
9. The state, the historians and the Algerian War in French memory, 1991–2004 – Raphaëlle Branche
10. The German historians’ debate about the upheavals of 1989 – Martin Sabrow
Conclusion – Harriet Jones, Kjell Östberg, and Nico Randeraad
Index
About the author
Nico Randeraad is Lecturer in History and European Studies at Maastricht University
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