History and the Present

by Partha Chatterjee (Editor), Anjan Ghosh (Editor)

These essays represent a critique of the disciplinary practices of history. They examine the historian's practices and assumptions, being mainly concerned with finding a set of practices of history-writing that are both truthful and ethical. They are united by the desire to find a way out of the self-constructed cage of scientific history that has made historians wary of the popular.

Genres: Art History, History, Theory, India, Nonfiction

240 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2003

About the author

Partha Chatterjee is a political theorist and historian. He studied at Presidency College in Calcutta, and received his Ph.D. from the University of Rochester. He divides his time between Columbia University and the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta, where he was the Director from 1997 to 2007. He is the author of more than twenty books, monographs and edited volumes and is a founding member of the Subaltern Studies Collective. He as awarded the Fukuoka Asian Culture Prize for 2009 for outstanding achievements in the field of Asian studies. He is also a poet, playwright, and actor. In the Mira Nair film The Namesake (2007), he played the role of “A Reformed Hindoo.”

Reviews

[AskHistorians]

A collection of essays by some of the leading historians of South Asia, this work looks at ways in which modes of understanding the past have been negotiated within various registers, including folktales, religious architecture, ballads etc.