Historisising twentieth-century historiography

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Published: Jun 30, 2017
DOI: https://doi.org/10.12681/historein.10030
Antonis Liakos
University of Athens
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1349-8023
Abstract

The twentieth century has been described as a dark century of wars, holocausts, death and pain. This is true, but it is only a partial image of the century. This article discusses five major challenges and their relations to historiography: a) the disintegration of empires, decolonisation and the rise of new nations; b) the impact of world wars (genocides, revolutions, totalitarian regimes); c) the boom in technoscience and the digital era; d) the ascent of rights, the transformation of gender relations and mass literacy; and e) globalisation. These changes were experienced by three generations of historians. The first generation appeared before the First World War, the second from 1918 to 1970 and the third from 1970. The question we pose is: has the history of historiography responded to these challenges or does it also have its internal logic? And how has it responded?

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Author Biography
Antonis Liakos, University of Athens
Professor of contemporary history and history of historiography at the University of Athens, chair of the Board of the International Commission for History and Τheory of Historiography (2010-2015) and managing editor of Historein. Research fellow and visiting professor at the University of Birmingham (1989), European University Institute (1995), University of Sydney (1995) University of Princeton (1996, 2006), Ecole Normale Superieure (2001), member of the Board of the European Doctorate in Social History (2005-20010). Main books: L’ Unificazione italiana e la Grande Idea (1859-1871), [The Unification of Italy and the Greek National Idea], Firenze 1995, Ergasia kai Politiki stin Ellada tou Mesopolemou [Labour and Politics in the Interwar Greece], Athens 1993, Pos to parelthon ginetai istoria? [How the past turns to history?] Athens 2007, Pos stochastikan to ethnos autoi pou ithelan na allaxoun ton kosmo [The Nation. How has been imagined by those who wanted to change the world?], Athens 2006 (in Turkish: Dünyayi Değiştirmek İsteyenler, Ulusu Nasıl Tasavvur Ettiler?, İletişim 2008), Apokalypsi, Utopia kai Istoria (Apocalypse, Utopia and History), Athens 2011. aliakos@otenet.gr www.antonisliakos.gr
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