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Wiley InterScience | ||||||||||
  Historical ResearchVolume 81 Issue 211, Pages 167 - 188 Published Online: 15 May 2007 © 2010 Institute of Historical Research Published for the Institute of Historical Research
Abstract | Full Text: HTML, PDF (Size: 316K) | Related Articles | Citation Tracking  What are historians for?* Copyright © Institute of Historical Research 2007 ABSTRACT
This lecture addresses the general issue of the public function of academic history. In doing so, it considers the changing role of 'history' (both the practice and the form) from the Greeks to contemporary times, by exploring ways in which the muse Clio has been represented. It raises questions about the nature of public history in the U.K., by comparison with the so-called 'History wars' in North America and Australasia. It also engages with the relationship between the supposedly disinterested nature of historical enquiry and the ethical assumptions of historians as agents in society. By reflecting upon the tensions between the claims of historical writing as 'scholarship' and its literary form as a means of communicating with an audience, it argues that a priority for the discipline is to engage with pertinent matters of public concern. | 
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