1st Edition
History, Politics, and the American Past Essays on Methodology
Introduction; 1. Breaking Away from Progressive History; 2. Bidding Farewell to Progressive Individualism; 3. Letting Go of Narrative History: The Linearity of Time in Historical Research; 4. Parting with Moralistic Historiography; 5. Doing Away With Politics in Political History; 6. Concluding Remarks: The Long Goodbye to the American Past; Select Bibliography; Index
Biography
Ari Helo (PhD) is a Senior University Lecturer in North American Studies at the University of Helsinki, Finland. Helo's books and scholarly articles have been published in Britain, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, the Netherlands, Russia, and the United States, including Thomas Jefferson's Ethics and the Politics of Human Progress (2014).
"Ari Helo offers a bracingly fresh new perspective on the way we understand and write about our history. History can and should be revised so that we can better understand the past, always recognizing that the past itself cannot be changed: history must be distinguished from politics. Helo’s timely intervention will not bring an end to the wars over history and memory, but it will give us a much clearer sense of what’s at stake."
Peter Onuf, Professor Emeritus, University of Virginia
"... the author is intelligent, has a distinctive take on the relationship between history writing and the uses of history in contemporary politics, writes well and is always thought-provoking."
Trevor Burnard, Professor of History, University of Hull
