Conference
Print versionAt the Crossroads of Past & Present: 'Contemporary' History & the Historical Discipline
22-23 May 2009
This conference examines how the nature of ‘contemporary’ history has developed in response to the transformations of the recent past. While the concept of ‘contemporary’ history continues to be applied mostly to an analysis of the post-War era between 1945 and 1989 or of the even longer period from the caesura of 1918 to the present, historical depth has become more important in an analysis of current events. ‘At the Crossroads’ examines how historians can enrich our understanding of contemporary crises, the growth of transnational politics, and the rise of non-state actors. It explores how historians respond to the emergence of new types of sources in an internet-age. And it asks how the historians’ craft in analyzing ‘current’ contemporary history differs from scholars’ approaches in politics or international relations.
This conference examines how the nature of ‘contemporary’ history has developed in response to the transformations of the recent past. While the concept of ‘contemporary’ history continues to be applied mostly to an analysis of the post-War era between 1945 and 1989 or of the even longer period from the caesura of 1918 to the present, historical depth has become more important in an analysis of current events. ‘At the Crossroads’ examines how historians can enrich our understanding of contemporary crises, the growth of transnational politics, and the rise of non-state actors. It explores how historians respond to the emergence of new types of sources in an internet-age. And it asks how the historians’ craft in analyzing ‘current’ contemporary history differs from scholars’ approaches in politics or international relations.
