In Defence of History

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This all represents something of a retreat for the historical profession, or perhaps a planned withdrawal, from the territory occupied by the more ambitious historians of the past.

By rejecting the idea of objective truth postmodernism opens tremendous opportunities for extremists such as Holocaust deniers. In a genre over-populated by blinkered (not to say ignorant)and choleric conservative enemies of some ill-defined "postmodernism", Evans' book stands out as a balanced and thoughtful look at what History as a discipline is and should be.Richard Evans book In Defense Of History brilliantly reasons out and destroys most of these absurd postmodernist claims, which really should never have got to the stage of where millions of university students are learning in great detail their theories, as if they actually were correct and have high standing. There are only so many facts left behind by history, and for the rest, the historians have to fill in the gaps with their best judgment. They are constructed: in the documents attesting to the occurrence of events, by interested parties commenting on the events or the documents, and by historians interested in giving a true account of what really happened in the past and distinguishing it from what may appear to have happened.

Evans also tries to recognise the positive impact that post-modernist thought has had on the historical profession by providing new ways to think about the past and new subjects for study. For me it also succeeds in its argument that we can know about the past and we can find meaning in the past. And that objectivity is to be strived for (something he discusses in detail in the last chapter), and that facts and evidence matter. It is interesting to read it now in 2021 because Evans anticipates some of the uncomfortable consequences of a highly “relativist” position, which was originally conceived of as a way of undermining a conservative hold on the past and therefore the present social structure.The copyright to all contents of this site is held either by Granta or by the individual authors, and none of the material may be used elsewhere without written permission. Which Evans had to concede in a response: "Easthope says roundly : 'This is a howler', and I'm afraid he's quite right. Ongeacht welk 'kamp' (al is het boek ondanks de uitdagende titel allesbehalve dichotoom) uiteindelijk aan het juiste eind trekt, Evans' kernboodschap blijft bovenal: wars van alle (terechte) kritiek, mag de historicus wel degelijk en met zelfvertrouwen stevig in zijn of haar schoenen staan. Antony Easthope has more to say about Evans's treatment of Derrida in his review of In Defence of History. Wulf Kansteiner has argued that Evans produces a caricature of postmodernism because he draws from a limited number of sources and presents the most radical variations as mainstream.