How I Became I Revisionist (Without Knowing What this Meant)
Uses and abuses of a concept in the debate over the Greek Civil War
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.69791/rahc.253Keywords:
revisionism, civil wars, public history, Greek civil war, historical debatesAbstract
This paper adopts an autobiographical stance to describe recent debates about the Greek Civil War to which I was a participant. The main argument is that the practice of relying on the concept of «revisionism» is either redundant or dangerous. It is redundant if it is used to denote an attempt to challenge conventional and/or dominant (scientific or public) wisdom; and it is dangerous if it is used to stifle research that challenges widely held historical beliefs. As for low quality, politically motivated historical research, this can easily be challenged through the use of standard practices of scientific review rather than potentially counterproductive attacks that rely on the «revisionist» characterization. The paper concludes with some thoughts on the pitfalls of active scholarly engagement with issues that enter the arena of public history.
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References
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