Tocqueville, Napoleon, and History-Writing in a Democratic Age

2021 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 43-55
Author(s):  
David A. Bell
Keyword(s):  
Historical Writing ◽  
Great Weight ◽  
History Writing ◽  
Napoleon Bonaparte ◽  
Democratic Equality ◽  
Democracy In America ◽  
The Way

In Democracy in America, Tocqueville posited a contrast between the way history is written in “aristocratic” and “democratic” ages. In the former, historians tend to assign great weight to the actions of individuals; in the latter, they privilege great impersonal forces that act upon the mass. The essay examines Tocqueville’s views of Napoleon Bonaparte in light of these reflections. It concludes that despite his occasional vulnerability to the lure of Napoleonic grandeur, and despite his own desire, as an aristocrat writing in a democratic age, to effect a synthesis of the two modes of historical writing, in the end he fundamentally viewed Napoleon’s actions as determined by the forces of democratic equality and revolution.

scholarly journals FORUM: CLOSENESS AND DISTANCE IN THE AGE OF ENLIGHTENMENT INTRODUCTION

2014 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 603-609 ◽  
Author(s):  
JOHN BREWER ◽  
SILVIA SEBASTIANI
Keyword(s):  
Historical Writing ◽  
Historical Knowledge ◽  
History Writing ◽  
The Past ◽  
Michel De Certeau ◽  
Age Of Enlightenment ◽  
Historical Writings ◽  
Opening Up ◽  
Over Time ◽  
The Way

According to Michel de Certeau, distance is the indispensable prerequisite for historical knowledge and the very characteristic of modern historiography. The historian speaks, in the present, about the absent, the dead, as Certeau labels the past, thus emphasizing the performative dimension of historical writing: “the function of language is to introduce through saying what can no longer be done.” As a consequence, the heterogeneity of two non-communicating temporalities becomes the challenge to be faced: the present of the historian, as a moment du savoir, is radically separated from the past, which exists only as an objet de savoir, the meaning of which can be restored by an operation of distantiation and contextualization. In Evidence de l’histoire: Ce que voient les historiens, François Hartog takes up the question of history writing and what is visible, or more precisely the modalities historians have employed to narrate the past, opening up the way to a reflection on the boundaries between the visible and the invisible: the mechanisms that have contributed to establish these boundaries over time, and the questions that have legitimized the survey of what has been seen or not seen. But, as Mark Phillips points out, it is the very ubiquity of the trope of distance in historical writings that has paradoxically rendered it almost invisible to historians, so that “it has become difficult to distinguish between the concept of historical distance and the idea of history itself.”

Syriac and Syro-Arabic Historical Writing, c.500–c.1400

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Muriel Debié ◽  
David Taylor
Keyword(s):  
Fifth Century ◽  
Historical Writing ◽  
Christian Church ◽  
History Writing ◽  
Imperial History ◽  
Church Structures ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter analyzes how Syriac historiography is a rare example of non-etatist, non-imperial, history writing. It was produced, copied, and preserved entirely within Christian church structures. The Syriac-using Christians, however, were divided into numerous rival denominations and communities as a consequence both of the fifth-century theological controversies and of geopolitical boundaries. And since both of these factors strongly influenced both the motivations which underpinned the production of history writing and the forms it took, historians need to have some knowledge of these rival Syriac denominations. Because of internal Christian debates about the relationship of the divinity and humanity within Christ during the fifth century, the Syriac-using churches fragmented. All accepted that Christ was perfect God and perfect man, but differed fiercely about how to articulate this.

Historical Writing in the Balkans

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ulf Brunnbauer
Keyword(s):  
Freedom Of Expression ◽  
The Other ◽  
Former Yugoslavia ◽  
Ethnic Cleansing ◽  
Historical Writing ◽  
The Balkans ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Balkan Countries ◽  
The One ◽  
The Way

This chapter analyzes historiography in several Balkan countries, paying particular attention to the communist era on the one hand, and the post-1989–91 period on the other. When communists took power in Albania, Bulgaria, Romania, and Yugoslavia in 1944–5, the discipline of history in these countries—with the exception of Albania—had already been institutionalized. The communists initially set about radically changing the way history was written in order to construct a more ideologically suitable past. In 1989–91, communist dictatorships came to an end in Bulgaria, Romania, Yugoslavia, and Albania. Years of war and ethnic cleansing would ensue in the former Yugoslavia. These upheavals impacted on historiography in different ways: on the one hand, the end of communist dictatorship brought freedom of expression; on the other hand, the region faced economic displacement.

Indonesian Historical Writing after Independence

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ann Kumar
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Historical Writing ◽  
Dutch Version ◽  
History Writing ◽  
Academic History ◽  
Artistic Representations ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Military ◽  
Local Perspectives

This chapter discusses Indonesian historical writing after independence. At the time Indonesia became independent, knowledge of academic history-writing was virtually non-existent. Indonesian elites then faced the postcolonial predicament of having to adopt Western nationalistic approaches to history in order to oppose the Dutch version of the archipelago’s history that had legitimized colonial domination. Soon after independence, the military took over and dominated the writing of history in Indonesia for several decades. Challenges to the military’s view of history came from artistic representations of history, and from historians—trained in the social sciences—who emphasized a multidimensional approach balancing central and local perspectives. However, it was only after 2002 that historians could openly criticize the role of the military.

From Heroisation to Competing Victimhoods. History Writing on the Second World War in Moldova

Südosteuropa ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 65 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Svetlana Suveica
Keyword(s):  
Political Discourse ◽  
Second World War ◽  
World War Two ◽  
World War ◽  
History Writing ◽  
Near Future ◽  
Second World ◽  
The Way

AbstractThe author outlines the way identity perspectives determine the understanding of World War Two in Moldovan society, and the role of historians in this conception. She discusses how historians have adjusted their writing to fit a certain political discourse and have influenced how and what should people ‘remember’. Further questions at stake touch on the standing of Moldovan history writing in comparison with World War Two research published outside the country; the new tendencies in history writing; and whether these emerging currents might lead in the near future to the transcendence of the politicised approaches that are currently dominant.

From biography to history: writing the modern British monarchy

2004 ◽  
Vol 77 (197) ◽  
pp. 289-312 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Cannadine
Keyword(s):  
Golden Age ◽  
Elizabeth I ◽  
Historical Writing ◽  
Royal Family ◽  
History Writing ◽  
The Past ◽  
Victorian Period ◽  
History Of

Abstract This article traces the development of biographical and historical writing about the British monarchy from the ‘golden age’ of Elizabeth I to the House of Windsor. It examines the differences in approach over the past two centuries, in particular, from the uncritical biographies of the Victorian period to the current unregulated flood of material, authorized and unauthorized. Such an analysis goes beyond the history of dynasties and individuals and becomes a history of society as reflected in the changing experiences of the British royal family.

scholarly journals Plutarch’s Thesis: The Contribution of Refugee Historians to Historical Writing, 1945–2010

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antoon De Baets
Keyword(s):  
Brain Drain ◽  
Country Of Origin ◽  
Historical Writing ◽  
History Writing ◽  
Three Stages ◽  
Scholarly Networks ◽  
The Brain

Can exile be seen as a blessing in disguise? The Greek moral essayist Plutarch, and others after him, argued that it can. This thesis that exile is a blessing in disguise is referred to as Plutarch's thesis, and this chapter attempts to test it. It analyzes 764 refugee historians — drawn from 63 countries on all continents — who made their contribution to historical writing after 1945. The overarching question is whether the loss for the country of origin featured as a corresponding benefit for the country of destination. For the countries of origin the three stages of exile — departure, sojourn abroad, and return — had repercussions. The brain drain was a devastating blow to history-writing, as ‘critical historical writing’ was replaced, for the most part, ‘by servile propaganda on behalf of repressive regimes’. During their sojourn abroad, many refugee historians edited ‘influential editions of sources’, while on their return, their influence was initially limited. Through their continued scholarly networks and contact with scholars and ideas from abroad, however, they enriched both their own scholarship and often the discipline itself. And although it was often delayed, in due course the works of those refugees who remained abroad became known or were rediscovered in their countries of origin.

scholarly journals When “Mixing Memory and Desire”: Imaginative Revisions and the Productive Power of Nostalgia in Rebecca Brown’s Oughtabiographies

2014 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 23-43
Author(s):  
Lies Xhonneux
Keyword(s):  
Personal History ◽  
History Writing ◽  
The Past ◽  
Narrative Truth ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Way

English:This essay focuses on the “oughtabiographies” of the contemporary lesbian writer Rebecca Brown, which function as imaginative vehicles with which the author (re)writes her own past the way it should have been. Thus her work will be seen to extend the realm of longing – usually reserved for the future – into the past, thereby highlighting the role of desire and the value of “narrative truth” in personal history writing. Moreover, Brown’s active reworkings of her personal past allow for a critical reappraisal of the concept of nostalgia, which is usually dismissed as conservative or passive.Dutch:Dit essay bespreekt de “oughtabiographies” van de hedendaagse lesbische schrijfster Rebecca Brown, waarin deze auteur haar eigen verleden herschrijft tot wat het had moeten zijn. Zo toont Browns werk de invloed van verlangens – die normaal gezien tot het domein van de toekomst behoren – op (het denken over) het verleden, en benadrukt het het belang van “narrative truth” in de context van persoonlijke geschiedschrijving. Bovendien laat Browns actieve herwerking van haar verleden een kritische herwaardering toe van het concept nostalgie, dat vaak als conservatief of passief wordt afgeschilderd.

scholarly journals MUATAN NILAI ISLAM DALAM PENULISAN DAN PENGAJARAN SEJARAH

2015 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 201-218
Author(s):  
Tiar Anwar Bachtiar
Keyword(s):  
The State ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Historical Writing ◽  
History Writing ◽  
Value System ◽  
A Value ◽  
State Schools ◽  
Islamic Values

In History writing and teaching, objectivity can not always be realized considering the character of knowledge that created by man who always can not shy away from the “subjectivity” of a human being. Especially in the teaching of history in which every teaching must necessarily refer to the normative goals that have been set, either by the state, schools, or teachers themselves. This suggests that the normativity be the main reference in the teaching of history. Both the curriculum and the standards applied in each lesson course based on a value system that is believed by its formers respectively. The value system is what will form the miscellaneous curriculum or standards and distinguish between one to another. This study tried to view and evaluate whether the values of Islam as a religion has the largest adopted is represented well in teaching, especially in the teaching of history. Conclusions from this research that, viewed in general, the tradition of the teaching of history in Indonesia, especially in the teaching of general history, is not from Islamic traditions. Even if there are some content that do not conflict with the islamic values, its only a coincident. Especially when considering the tradition of historical writing in Indonesia intensively started from the colonial-orientalist tradition that put Islam and Muslims as their main enemy. In many cases, it is found effort to omit the role of Islam and muslim in Indonesian history, and also the historical facts about the role of Muslims that is still not seated proportionally.

From the Search for Normality to the Search for Normality: German Historical Writing

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefan Berger
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
German Democratic Republic ◽  
Economic History ◽  
Democratic Republic ◽  
Federal Republic Of Germany ◽  
Historical Writing ◽  
History Writing ◽  
East German ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Socialist Unity

This chapter demonstrates the overwhelming dominance of a Marxist, Soviet-inspired agenda, and the supremacy of social and especially economic history. During the Cold War, only the historians in the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) followed the Western path. Their counterparts in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) adhered to the Marxist-Leninist framework of history-writing prescribed by the ruling Socialist Unity Party (SED). The divided world of the Cold War ensured that history-writing in the FRG and GDR became highly polarized. Anti-communism remained the underlying rationale of much historical writing in the FRG during the 1950s, and anti-imperialism and anti-capitalism comprised the ideological backbone of the GDR’s historical profession. Ultimately, the Cold War was crucial in incorporating West and East German historians into different transnational networks. After 1945, the two Germanies were attempting to regain some kind of national as well as historiographical ‘normality’ following major political and historiographical caesuras.

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