Historians and politics: present and past, tensions and conflicts

Abstract

The narrative of the past, written History, has traditionally been produced in close dependence on political power and social order. After the professionalization of historians and the epistemological standardization of historical research, the panorama has changed profoundly. Notwithstanding, more complex occurrences of public or political use of history continue to exist. The present article describes the early erudite critical history in the 19th century and its interactions with national –and nationalist– cultures of its time, it analyzes the historical profession within the framework of national Spanish culture in the 20th century, and intends to observe how the structural transformations in the public life help reformulate the historian’s role. From the second half of 20th century, historians have considered the public uses of history as a specific area of research and have contributed to a self rethinking which is necessary to defend the responsibility of professionals and the social function of history.