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Historical thinking has a politics that shapes its ends. While at least two generations of scholars have been guided into their working lives with this axiom as central to their profession, it is somewhat of a paradox that historiography is so often nowadays seen as a matter of intellectual choices operating outside the imperatives of quotidian politics, even if the higher realms of ideological inclinations or historiographical traditions can be seen to have played a role. The politics of historical thinking, if acknowledged at all, is seen to belong to the realms of nonprofessional ways of the instrumentalisation of the past.
This series seeks to centre the politics inherent in historical thinking, professional and non-professional, promoted by states, political organisations, 'nationalities' or interest groups, and to explore the links between political (re-)education, historiography and mobilisation or (sectarian?) identity formation. We hope to bring into focus the politics inherent in historical thinking, professional, public or amateur, across the world today.
Advisory Board:
Amar Baadj, American University Cairo
Berber Bevernage, University of Ghent
Federico Finchelstein, New School for Social Research, New York
Kavita Philip, University of British Columbia
Dhruv Raina, Jawaharlal Nehru University
Indra Sengupta, German Historical Institute, London
Jakob Tanner, University of Zurich
About the author
Christian Jacobs, Centre Marc Bloch, Berlin.
Summary
The book analyzes how three political movements used the concept of culture in France between the late 1960s and the early 1980s: the women's movement, the postmigrant movement, and a far-right group called GRECE. The book asks what culture meant for the movements and when and why activists evoked the concept. Two overall trends shaped concepts of culture during the period of investigation. First, decolonization as an intellectual and political development redefined political key concepts such as culture. Second, change through culture replaced visions in which the state was the central instrument for political change. At the same time, specific surrounding contexts, such as legal, financial, and cultural resources, the movements’ sociologies, and the political environments with their dominant discourses, potential allies, and enemies shaped the intellectual histories of the political movements. By studying political movements as production sites of a concept, the book connects intellectual history to political and social history. It studies intellectual labor beyond famous individuals and as much in practice as in theory.
