The Ethos of History: Time and Responsibility (Making Sense of History Book 34)

At a time when rapidly evolving technologies, political turmoil, and the tensions inherent in multiculturalism and globalization are reshaping historical consciousness, what is the proper role for historians and their work? By way of an answer, the contributors to this volume offer up an illuminating collective meditation on the idea of __ethos__ and its relevance for historical practice. These intellectually adventurous essays demonstrate how ethos—a term evoking a society’s “fundamental character” as well as an ethical appeal to knowledge and commitment—can serve as a conceptual lodestar for history today, not only as a narrative, but as a form of consciousness and an ethical-political orientation. Contents Acknowledgements INTRODUCTION Situating the Ethos of History CHAPTER 1 Towards a New Ethos of History? CHAPTER 2 The Vampire, the Undead and the Anxieties of Historical Consciousness CHAPTER 3 History, Justice and the Time of the Imprescriptible CHAPTER 4 Narrating Pasts for Peace? A Critical Analysis of Some Recent Initiatives of Historical Reconciliation through ‘Historical Dialogue’ and ‘Shared History’ CHAPTER 5 Psychoanalysis and the Indeterminacy of History CHAPTER 6 Does Time Have a Gender? Queer Temporality, Anachronism and the Desire for the Past CHAPTER 7 ‘The One Who Should Die Is the One Who Shall Live’ Prophetic Temporalities in Contemporary Colonial Brazil CHAPTER 8 Radical Time in (Post)Colonial Narratives CHAPTER 9 Engaged History CHAPTER 10 Speakers for the Dead: Digital Memory and the Construction of Identity CHAPTER 11 History Begins in the Future: On Historical Sensibility in the Age of Technology Afterword Index "At a time when rapidly evolving technologies, political turmoil, and the tensions inherent in multiculturalism and globalization are reshaping historical consciousness, what is the proper role for historians and their work? By way of an answer, the contributors to this volume offer up an illuminating collective meditation on the idea of ethos and its relevance for historical practice. These intellectually adventurous essays demonstrate how ethos--a term evoking a society's "fundamental character" as well as an ethical appeal to knowledge and commitment--can serve as a conceptual lodestar for history today, not only as a narrative, but as a form of consciousness and an ethical-political orientation"-- Provided by publisher This illuminating collective meditation on historical practice show how "ethos"- evoking a society's "fundamental character" as well as knowledge and commitment-can serve as a conceptual lodestar for understanding as a narrative, a form of consciousness, and an ethical-political orientation.