The ethos of history : time and responsibility Introduction : the ethos of history Stefan Helgesson and Jayne Svenungsson Towards a new ethos of history Aleida Assmann The vampire the undead and the anxieties of historical consciousness Claudia Lindén and Hans Ruin History justice and the time of the imprescriptible Victoria Fareld Narrating pasts for peace : a critical analysis of some recent initiatives of historical reconciliation through historical dialogue and shared history Berber Bevernage Psychoanalysis and the indeterminacy of history Joan W. Scott Does time have a gender : queer temporality anachronism and the desire for the past Kristina Fjelkestam The one who should die is the one who shall live : prophetic temporalities in contemporary colonial Brazil Patricia Lorenzoni Radical time in post colonial narratives Stefan Helgesson Engaged history Marcia Sá Cavalcante Schuback Speakers for the dead : digital memory and the construction of identity Alana M. Vincent History begins in the future : on historical sensibility in the age of technology Zoltán Boldizsár Simon At a time when rapidly evolving technologies political turmoil and the tensions inherent in multiculturalism and globalization are reshaping historical consciousness what is the proper role for historians and their work By way of an answer the contributors to this volume offer up an illuminating collective meditation on the idea of ethos and its relevance for historical practice. These intellectually adventurous essays demonstrate how ethos a term evoking a societys fundamental character as well as an ethical appeal to knowledge and commitment can serve as a conceptual lodestar for history today not only as a narrative but as a form of consciousness and an ethical political orientation