Politics of the past: the use and abuse of history - Socialists ...

Politics of the Past: The Use
and Abuse of History
When politicians appeal to historical facts to justify political claims,
we should ask ourselves what history actually is. What do we know
for fact and what can be interpreted? The British historian E.H. Carr,
whose book What is History? (published in 1961), dominated this
debate for many years, wrote that historical truth lies somewhere
between valueless facts and value judgements. The objective facts
are there but their selection and interpretation are subjective.
Norman Davies talks in his interview, drawing on Carr’s work, about
the need to separate evidence from judgement. Carr believed in
historical causality but other historians deny that this helps us to
explain the present and predict the future.
Carr developed a master narrative that shows the progress of
mankind. Many later historians decided instead to concentrate on
local histories believing that one can only know a lot about little.
Some claim that history is only about ‘battles and kings’, others
prefer a sociological approach and use different concepts of time.
The definition of history is thus a subject under constant debate
without definitive answers.
Most professional historians agree that objective interpretations of
historical facts are not possible. Facts as such mean nothing.
Historians select them and create the framework within which they
get meaning. They look at the past from their own perspective, different
from that of their predecessors and successors. Historians
are not neutral and are influenced by their contemporary societies.
What applies to historians also applies to politicians. Nevertheless,
historians use scientific tools to study the past and they try to be as
impartial as possible. History is neither a purely subjective undertaking
where every narrative of the past is equally good; nor, however,
is objectivity to be found in uncritically accepting embellished
images of the past. Politicians are warned often enough by
historians to be very careful claiming objectivity but this opens
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Jan Marinus Wiersma (MEP), studied History at the University
of Groningen.
Jan Marinus Wiersma