Twilight of history
By: Shlomo Sand ; translated by David Fernbach
Contributors: Fernbach, David, translator
Publisher: Verso
Published: 2017
Language: eng
Number of pages: 276
ISBN-13: 9781786630223
Subjects: Historiography; Philosophy; History
Work titles: Crépuscule de l'histoire
Description: "The acclaimed and controversial historian turns his critical gaze on the writing of history today. Drawing on his four decades as a professional historian, Shlomo Sand interrogates the academic discipline of history, whose origin lay in the need for a national ideology. In the last few decades, traditional history has begun to fragment, yet only to give rise to a new role of historians as priests of official memory. Working in Israel has sharpened Sand's perspective, since the role of history as national myth is particularly salient in a country where the Bible is treated as a history book. He asks such questions as: Is every historical narrative ideologically marked? Do political requirements and state power weigh down inordinately on historical research and teaching? And, in such conditions, can there be a morally neutral and 'scientific' truth? Despite his trenchant criticism of academic history, Sand would still like to believe that the past can be understood without myth, and sees pointers for this in the work of Weber and Sorel"--Provided by publisher.
Notes: "First published as Crépuscule de l'histoire, Editions Flammarion, 2015"--Title page verso.

Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Preface: Studying History to Free Ourselves from It; title: Undoing the Myth of Origins; title: Escaping from Politics; title: Probing the Truth of the Past; title: Retreating from National Time.