What are historians for?

Historical Research

Volumn 81, Issue 211, 2008, Pages 167-188

  Champion, Justin ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF LONDON   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 54349110072     PISSN: 09503471     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Review

References (75)

1. H. Trevor-Roper, History; Professional and Lay (Oxford, 1957), p. 5.
2. quot; For a short review, see R. C. Carrier. 'The function of the historian in society". The History 'readier, xxxv (2002). 519-26.
3. From the North American perspective, see J. Appleby, presidential address. 'Should we all become public historians?', Perspectives, March 1997 [accessed 31 Jan. 2007]. For a discussion among practitioners in the U.S.A., see 'Interchange: the practice of history". Jour. Amer, Hist., xc (2003). 576-611.
4. See the recent discussion in A. Curthoys and J. Docker. Is History Fiction? (Sydney, 2006)
5. A. Curthoys and J. Docker, 'The two histories: metaphor in English historical writing'. Rethinking History, i (1997), 259-73.
6. For a powerful statement, see Gkuimor Williams's inaugural lecture at University College, Swansea, History in a Modem University (1959). esp. pp. 6, 8. 13-15. 16, 31.
7. D. Starkey 'The English historian's role and the place of history in English national life", The Historian, lxxi (2001), 6-15
8. M. Reeves. 'The uses of history in the 21st century', The Historian, lxxiv (2002), 6-10.
9. For a discussion of the reception of Simon Schama's television history, see J. A. I. Champion, 'Seeing the past: Simon Schama's "A history of Britain" and public history". History Workshop Jour., lvi (2003), 153-74.
10. For a very sensible statement, see C. Becker. 'Everyman his own historian', Amer. Hist. Rev., xxxvii (1932), 221-36.
11. For some reflections, see D. Greenberg. '"History is a luxury": Mrs. Thatcher. Mr. Disney, and (public) history', Reviews in Amer. Hist., xxvi (1998), 294-311
12. M. Cassity, 'History and the public purpose'. Jour. Amer. Hist., Ixxxi (1994), 969-76.
13. The debates that have raged in the discipline are ongoing: the starting point must be K. Jenkins. Re-thinking History (1991)
14. The Nature of History Reader, ed. K.Jenkins and A. Munslow (2004)
15. Making History: an Introduction to the History and Practices of a Discipline, ed. P. Lambert and P. Schofield (2004)
16. R. Evans, In Defence of History (1997)
17. See also J. C. D. Clark, Our Shadowed Present: Modernism, Postmodernism and History (2003).
18. See E. Showalter, Faculty Towers: the Academic Novel and its Discontents (Philadelphia. Pa., 2005)
19. A. D. Nuttall, Dead from the Waist Down: Scholars and Scholarship in Literature and the Popular Imagination (New Haven, Conn., 2003). S. Collini. Absent Minds: Intellectuals in Britain (Oxford. 2006) continues the broader account.
20. See Champion, passim.
21. See [accessed 28 June 2006].
22. See the websites for the 'Voices of the powerless' series [accessed 28 June 2006] and 'In our time' [accessed 28 June 2006].
23. For an important overview, see P. Mandler, History and National Life (2002)
24. D. Lowenthal, The Heritage Crusade and the Spoils of History (Cambridge. 1998).
25. For a discussion of Indian historiography, see V. Lal, The History of History: Polities and Scholarship in Modem India (Oxford. 2005), esp. pp. 1-27.
26. For North American debates, see J. Evans 'What is public history?' [accessed 28 June 2006].
27. W. S. Pretzer. 'Reviewing public history in light of the "Enola Gay"", Technology and Culture, xxxix (1998), 457-61 ('The special section: the last act" of this issue contains a number of key articles);
28. see also R. C. Post 'A narrative for our time: the Enola Gay "and after that, period'". Technology and Culture, xlv (2004), 373-95
29. D. Thelen 'History after the Enola Gay controversy: an introduction', jour. Amer. Hist., lxxxii (1995), 1029-35
30. R. H. Kohn, 'History and the culture wars: the case of the Smithsonian Institution's Enola Gay exhibition', Jour. Amer. Hist., lxxxii (1995), 1036-63.
31. See S, Macintyre and A, Clark, The History Wars (Melbourne, 2004)
32. The Historian's Conscience: Australian Historians on the Ethics of History, ed. S. Macintyre (Melbourne, 2004).
33. T. A. Woods 'Museums and the public: doing history together', Jour. Amer. Hist., lxxxii (1995). 1111-15.
34. See 'New British history in schools must be an honest "warts and all" story" and G. Brown, 'The future of Britishness' [accessed 28 June 2006].
35. See Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, History: 2004/5 Annual Report on Curriculum and Assessment (December 2005) [accessed 28 June 2002].
36. See Oxford, Cambridge and R.S.A. Examinations. OCR GCSE in History (Pilot) (2006) and OCR GCSE (Short Course) in History (Pilot) (2006) [accessed 28 June 2006].
37. S. Collini. Public Moralists: Political Thought and Intellectual Life in Britain, 1830-11)30 (Oxford. 1991)
38. see also B. G. Smith, 'Gender and the practices of scientific history-the seminar and archival research in the 19th century', Amer. Hist. REV., C (1995). 1150-76.
39. See A. Maclachlan. The Rise and [''all of Revolutionary England (Basingstoke, 1996).
40. For some sensitive remarks, see P. Novick '(The death of) the ethics of historical practice (and why I'm not mourning)', Annals of the Amer. Academy of Pol. and Soc. Science, dlx (1998), 28-42.
41. See also J, Gorman, 'Historians and their duties'. History and Theory, xliii (2004), 103-17;
42. D. Moses 'Hayden White, traumatic nationalism, and the public role of history'. History and Theory, xliv (2005), 311-32
43. for a response to Novick. see J. Lichtenberg, 'The will to truth: a reply to Novick', Annals of the Amer. Academy of Pol. and Soc. Science, dlx (1998), 43-54;
44. see T. L. Haskell, 'Objectivity is not neutrality: rhetoric vs. practice in Peter Novick's That Noble Dream'. History and Theory, xxix (1990). 129-57.
45. See P. Novick, That Noble Dream: the 'Objectivity Question' and the American Historical Profession (Cambridge, 1988).
46. G. M. Trevelyan, History and the Reader (1945). pp. 7. 13, 15, 22, 24.
47. See. in particular. G. M. Trevelyan, Clio, a Muse and other Essays (1930). esp. pp. 140-76.
48. For an account of 19th-century attitudes, see S. Bann, 'Clio in part: on antiquariamsm and the historical fragment', Perspecta, xxiii (1987), 24-37
49. S. Bann, 'The Clothing of Clio: a Study of the Representation of History in 19th-Century Britain and France (Cambridge. 1984)
50. N. Z. Davis, 'History's two bodies'. Amer. Hist. Rev., xciii (1988), 1-30.
51. Some of the more identifiable images of Clio include paintings by Claude Mignard (1689. now in the Musée des Beaux Arts, Budapest); Eustache Le Sueur (1652. now at the Louvre. Paris); François Boucher (The Wallace Collection); Giovanni Barbieri. engraved by W. W. Ryland (1763); Artemesia Gentileschi (1632); and Angelica Kaufman (1700, now at Augsburg). Engravings of Clio by Hendrik Goltzius (1592) were re-worked by many subsequent artists for inclusion in editions of historical works - the 1617 edition of Sir Walter Raleigh's History of the World, and Thomas Heywood's 1624 Of the Muses are examples. The iconographical tradition of Cesare Ripa was also a source of other representations. Sculptures by Clodian (at the Palais de la Legion d'Honneur. Paris) and Carlo Franzoni, in the National Statuary Hall of the U.S. Capitol are reproduced here. The image of Vermeer's Art of Painting is reproduced (with permission) from Jonathan Jansen's excellent website Essential Vcrmeer [accessed 31 Jan. 2007].
52. Charles Sims. R.A., Clio and the Children (1913, oil on canvas, diploma work, accepted in 1916) (see the website of the Royal Academy [accessed 28 June 2006]). See also the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford, 2004) 011 Sims's life.
53. For some similar remarks related to the arts in general, see J. Carey, What Good arc the Arts? (2005).
54. A more profound engagement prompted by recent political developments is P. Ginsborg. The Politics of Everyday Life: Making Choices Changing Lives (New Haven, Conn., 2005).
55. Interestingly, the Euston Manifesto 'statement of principles' number (12) makes a commitment to 'Historical truth' on the grounds that 'In connecting to the original humanistic impulses of the movement for human progress, we emphasize the duty which genuine democrats must have to respect for the historical truth' [accessed 28 June 2006].
56. See D, Lipstadt, History on Trial (New York, 2005)
57. D. D, Guttenplan, The Holocaust on Trial: History, Justice and the David living Libel Case (2001); The living Judgement (2000)
58. D. Cesarani 'Irving v Lipstadt: the aftermath http://www.channel4.com/history/microsites/H/holocaust [accessed 28 June 2006].
59. See R. J. Evans, "Telling Lies about Hitler: the Holocaust, History and the David living Trial (2002).
60. See Evans. Telling Lies, pp. 248-54
61. See O.D.N.B. entry on Thomas Aikenhead.
62. The various positions are outlined in Free Expression is No Offence, ed. L. Appignanesi (2005).
63. J. Robertson, The Case for the Enlightenment (Cambridge, 2005).
64. See D. Dennett, Breaking the Spell (2006)
65. L. Wolpert. Six Impossible Tilings before Breakfast (2006) and R. Dawkins, The God Delusion (2006)
66. The best quality reproduction of Vermeer's painting can be found at http://essentialverrrieer.2om.corn [accessed 28 June 2006]. For discussion of the meaning of the painting, see D. Arasse, Vermeer: Faith in Painting (Princeton, N.J., 1994);
67. I. Gaskell, Vermeer's Wager: Speculations on Art History, Theory and Art Museums (2000)
68. S. Alpers, The Art of Describing: Dutch Art in the 17th Century (1989), esp. pp. 72-168;
69. Vermeer Studies, ed. I. Gaskell and M. Jonker (Studies in the History of Art. lv, New Haven, Conn., 1998). For the best historical account of Vermeer, see J. Montias. Vermeer and his Milieu (Princeton, N.J., 1989).
70. When the lecture was delivered, a reproduction of Vermeer's 'The art of painting was on display for the duration of the event.
71. See J. A. Welu, 'The map in Vermeer's "Art of painting"'. Imago Mundi, xxx (1978). 9-30;
72. J. A. Welu, 'Verrneer: his cartographic sources', Art Bulletin, lvii (1975), 529-47.
73. See. e.g., C. S. Braider, 'The denuded muse: the unmasking of point of view in the Cartesian cogito and Vermeer's The Art of Painting'. Poetics Today, x (1989), 173-203.
74. Interestingly, Richard Evans (Telling Lies. p. 257) remarks that historians are like 'figurative painters' who may use different techniques from different perspectives but still aim for representational verisimilitude: someone claiming to paint a mountain should not produce a picture of a fried egg. This is a debateable view of the nature of art which avoids engaging with the aesthetic dimension of artistic expression. ''' See F. Nietzsche, 'On the utility and liability of history for life', in The Complete Works of Fricdrich Nietzsche, ii: Unfashionable Observations, trans. R. T. Gray (Stanford. 111., 1998), pp. 85-167, at pp. 85. 93.
75. Interestingly this same phrase was noted by Walter Benjamin in his 'Theses on the philosophy of history' (no. XII), in Illuminations, ed. H. Arendt (1992), p. 251.