Historiografska misao dana – Stefan Berger: “History and national identity: why they should remain divorced”

S obzirom da se u hrvatskoj historiografiji, nastavi povijesti i kulturi kontinuirano pridaje povjesničarima, povijesti i kulturi gotovo samorazumljiva uloga oblikovanja nacionalnog identiteta, nastavljamo ukazivati na povjesničare, članke i knjige koji na to gledaju bitno drugačije.

 

 

Stefan Berger

 

History and national identity: why they should remain divorced

 

2007

 

Executive Summary

 

  • National history has long played a prominent role in the forging of national identities.
  • This historiographic nationalism has contributed to xenophobia, exclusion, discrimination, violence, war and genocide.
  • There is no neat distinction between a benign, civic, liberal nationalism and a malign, ethnic, authoritarian nationalism as far as the potential for exclusion and violence is concerned.
  • Powerful challenges to traditional historiographic nationalism have come from a number of sources since the 1980s: comparative and transnational history, the ‘constructivist turn’ in nationalism studies, historical anthropology, women’s and gender history, and global history.
  • However just as scholarly historians have been moving away from their traditional role as nation-builders, more popular historians have been stepping into their shoes, particularly visible in recent developments in TV history.
  • This indicates that the nationalist historical paradigm, with all its attendant dangers, is far from exhausted in contemporary Europe.
  • Politicians should be very wary of encouraging this: in particular Gordon Brown’s concern with Britishness is therefore a misguided policy initiative.
  • The real task facing politicians and historians today is to build alternative participatory solidarities to those of national identities and national histories.

 

http://www.historyandpolicy.org/policy-papers/papers/history-and-national-identity-why-they-should-remain-divorced

 

 

Odgovori