Why History?: Ethics and Postmodernity

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Psychology Press, 1999 - History - 232 pages
Why History'is a compelling introduction to the issue of history and ethics. Designed to provoke discussion, the book asks whether and why a good knowledge and understanding of the past is desirable. In the context of current postmodern thinking, Keith Jenkins suggests that the goal of "learning lessons from the past" actually means learning lessons from stories written by historians and others. If the past as history has no foundation, can anything ethical be gained from history? Daring and controversial,Why History'presents liberating challenges to history and ethics, proposing that we have reached an emancipatory moment which is well beyond the "end of history."
 

Contents

PART I
7
PART III
10
On the end of metanarratives
35
On Jean Baudrillard
56
On JeanFrançois Lyotard
71
PART II
91
On Hayden White
115
On Frank Ankersmit
133
Beyond histories and ethics
161
On David Harlan
184
Promisings
201
Further reading
223
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About the author (1999)

Keith Jenkins is Reader in History at University College Chichester and author of Rethinking History (1991), On 'What is History?' From Carr and Elton to Rorty and White (1995) and The Postmodern History Reader (1997).

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