The Past as History

Stefan Berger is Professor of Social History and Director of the Institute for Social Movements at Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Germany, as well as Executive Chair of the Foundation Library of the Ruhr. Previously, he was Professor of Modern German and Comparative European History at the University of Manchester (2005 – 2011), and Professor of Contemporary History at the University of Glamorgan (2000 – 2005), UK. He has published widely on the history of historiography, national identity, memory history, and the history of social movements.    Christoph Conrad is Professor of Modern and Contemporary History at the University of Geneva, Switzerland. Previously, he lectured in history at the Free University in Berlin, Germany, where he also obtained his PhD. He has held visiting fellowships at Harvard University, the EHESS in Paris, Humboldt University Berlin and the University of Cambridge. Apart from his expertise in the history of historiography, he has widely published on the comparative history of ageing and the welfare state.

1. Introduction Constructing the Nation Through History 2. National History Before the Nation State from the High Middle Ages to the Enlightenment 3. The Invention of European National Traditions During the First Half of the Nineteenth Century 4. Scientificity and Historiographical Nationalism, 1850 1914 5. National Histories in and between the World Wars 6. National Histories from post-Second World War to post-Cold War 7. Conclusion What Balance Sheet and What Future for National Histories?