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Inga Clendinnen: The History Question

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Inga Clendinnen: The History Question
—Inga Clendinnen, The History Question
"Who owns the past? In a free society, everyone. It is a magic pudding belonging to anyone who wants to cut themselves a slice, from legend manufacturers through novelists looking for ready-made plots, to interest groups out to extend their influence."
K. Jenkins – postmodernist

* The historian’s purpose is to possible impose pattern on history.
* Relativism… is a fact of life.
* History is one of a series of discourses about the world.

H. White – postmodernist

An historical text is in essence nothing more than a literary text…

M. Foucault – postmodernist

Truth is linked… with systems of power which produce and sustain it…

E.H. Carr – relativist

* The facts only speak when the
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