In Defence of History

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However postmodernists get upset when they think people have misunderstood the meaning of things they have written.

This is also what he feels is the major problem with the relativistic approach underlying post-modernist theory; Evans believes that interpretations may be challenged but not the events of the past themselves. Put into this context, the work is a repudiation of the hyper-relativist belief that “There is no ‘true truth’…only experiences…only preferences” . So it is correct that not everything in a historian's text is absolutely true and objective, however there are objective facts and truths involved. Pascamodenisme, dengan penekanannya terhadap bahasa dan penghasilan makna (semiotik atau semantik), telah mencabar sejarahwan-sejarahwan kontemporari yang angkuh - yang menulis tentang masa silam seolah-olah ia berlaku sama benar dengan apa yang tertitip oleh dakwat hitam mereka itu. Evans’ In Defence of History is an attack on the influence of postmodernism on the practice of history.This all represents something of a retreat for the historical profession, or perhaps a planned withdrawal, from the territory occupied by the more ambitious historians of the past. Evans is an expert on modern German history, and he wrote a three-volume history of the Third Reich. Dog’, ‘kalbun’ dan ‘hund’ adalah nama berbeza di dalam bahasa berbeza namun ketiga-tiganya merujuk kepada objek yang sama.

On erinevate vaadete tutvustamisel ka ysna mõõdukas: ehkki raamat on suunatud eeskätt vastama postmodernistlike mõtlejate kriitikat (eelkõige, et objektiivset ajalootõde pole), ei ründa Evans neid mõõdutundetult (viitab, et mitmed nende toodud uuendused on olnud ka kasulikud) ega ripsuta yleliia tiiba ka hyperempiirilisust võimalikuks pidavate konservatiividega (ehkki sedastab, et ajaloolise tõe – olgu see pealegi osaline või subjektiivsusest teatvalt mõjutet – leidmine on õigete meetoditega võimalik). It becomes rapidly clear, however, that the author’s primary intention is to respond to the formidable challenge to history as a discipline presented by now well known postmodern criticism.And as history has taught us, if you don't learn from the past, then you are in danger of repeating it.