Public and Political Use of History: Case Studies Between the 19th and 21st Centuries

The debate on the public and political use of history has been going on throughout the twentieth century, but it has been rekindled with greater vigour in the first twenty years of the twenty-first century. The debate is undoubtedly fuelled by a renewed demand for history on the part of the public, which “professional” historians are only able to satisfy in part by publishing their research in monographs and specialist journals. The public, therefore, seeks and finds answers elsewhere, especially on the web, where everything is synthesised, simplified and disintermediated.