What Is History For?, livre audio

• Many historians mellow with age: Robert Gildea has got angrier about multiple forms of injustice, and this book channels that anger constructively into exploring how history can be a force for good

• Advocates a kind of ‘citizen history’, akin to citizen journalism

• Absolutely up to date in its engagement with current issues, but also deeply informed by Gildea’s knowledge of history and the uses to which it has been put

“History”, suggests Robert Gildea, “is a battlefield.” Questions of power, rights, identity and nationhood always have an ancient and modern historical dimension and countries still go to war over their interpretation of history. Yet accounts of history are just as prone to fabrication as fake news, so how can we tell good history from bad? How can history be critical, learning from the past and righting wrongs, rather than divisive, such as riding roughshod over the rights of others?

In this passionately argued book, Gildea suggests that the more people who really understand what good history entails, the more likely history is to triumph over myth. He sees positive signs in public history, citizen historians and community projects, among other developments. And he debunks claims that ‘you cannot rewrite history’, arguing that good history that’s attuned to its times must be rewritten time and again.

1. Where Are We Now?

2. How Did We Get Here?

3. Where Do We Go From Here?