The Historian's Conscience: Australian Historians on the Ethics of History

by Stuart Macintyre

Eminent contributors include Alan Atkinson, Graeme Davison, Greg Dening, John Hirst, Beverley Kingston, Marilyn Lake, and Iain McCalman.
They not only ask but answer the hard questions about writing and researching history. How do historians choose their histories? What sort of emotional investment do they make in their subjects, and how do they control their sympathies? How do they deal with unpalatable discoveries? To whom are historians responsible? And for whom are they entitled to speak?
Intellectually provocative, often personally revealing, always engaged, The Historian's Conscience is a 'must read'.

Genres: Nonfiction, Australia, History

180 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Stuart Macintyre was Emeritus Laureate Professor of the University of Melbourne and a Professorial Fellow of the School of Historical and Philosophical Studies. He was president of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia from 2007 to 2009 and a life member of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia. With Alison Bashford, he edited the Cambridge History of Australia (2013). His last book, published posthumously, is The Party: The Communist Party of Australia from heyday to reckoning (2022), the second volume in his history of the Communist Party of Australia.

Reviews

[Abass · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good collection of contemporary historians on the topic of memory, objectivity and many more in relation to Historiography. The book is succinct with short arguments of historians, supported with examples.