Why History?

by Jenkins; Keith

• ISBN13: 9780415164160
• ISBN10: 0415164168
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 1999-10-05
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Why History is an introduction to the issue of history and ethics. Designed to provoke discussion, the book asks whether a good knowledge and understanding of the past is a good thing to have and if so, why. In the context of postmodern times, Why History suggests that the goal of 'learning lessons from the past' is actually learning lessons from stories written by historians and others. If the past as history has no foundation, can anything ethical be gained from history?Why History presents liberating challenges to history and ethics, proposing that we have reached an emancipatory moment which is well beyond the 'end of history'.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	xi
Introduction: Living in time but outside history; living in morality but outside ethics	1	(34)
PART I On the end of metanarratives	35	(56)
Introduction	35	(2)
On Jacques Derrida	37	(19)
On Jean Baudrillard	56	(15)
On Jean-Francois Lyotard	71	(20)
PART II On the end of `proper' history	91	(70)
Introduction	91	(4)
On Richard Evans	95	(20)
On Hayden White	115	(18)
On Frank Ankersmit	133	(28)
PART III Beyond histories and ethics	161	(40)
Introduction	161	(2)
On Elizabeth Deeds Ermarth	163	(21)
On David Harlan	184	(17)
Conclusion: Promisings	201	(6)
Notes	207	(16)
Further reading	223	(7)
Index	230