ΣΥΝΗΓΟΡΙΑ ΥΠΕΡ ΤΗΣ ΣΥΓΧΡΟΝΗΣ ΙΣΤΟΡΙΑΣ Ή «ΙΣΤΟΡΙΑΣ ΤΟΥ ΠΑΡΟΝΤΟΣ»

Abstract

Lina Ventoura, A Call for «History of the Present»

This article begins by briefly presenting the condescension which fell on contemporary history during the modern era, as well as the recent emergence of a social demand for a systematic historical study of the present. It outlines those general factors that contributed to the formulation of this demand, while taking into consideration the divergent traditions and objectives in different European countries. It attempts a short review of the current discussion on the definition, periodization and the specificities of the «history of the present» and the problems created by the lack of temporal distance, by the use of new kinds of sources and by the prohibition of access to state archives of the last thirty years. The article discusses the issue of the use of a posteriori knowledge by historians working on the remote past, insisting specially on the danger of «retrospective determinism». On the contrary, the study of the «history of the present», as it comes across all that remains open in our times and ignores the future, may contribute to bring out the uncertainty of the past for those who lived in it.