Events
The Movement for the Abolition of War welcomes you to all events.
Myth truth and nation-state: how do our 'histories' help create our wars?
Date: 14/10/09
Details: Nationalist history has often been at the heart of justifying wars, ethnic cleansing and genocide. It is therefore of utmost importance to develop an understanding of history which allows for mutual tolerance and which creates more open and playful collective identities. Speaker Professor Stefan Berger will explain how a new research programme has underlined the importance of history( school textbooks, public history, popular history, academic history) to nationalist agendas from the late 18thC to the present day. Jeremy Corbyn MP will be joining in the discussion. Professor Berger will speak of the project 'Represenations of the Past: The Writing of National Histories in Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Europe'(NHIST). Funded by the European Science Foundation, this international programme involves 20 European research councils, covering 29 Europeana countries and involved more than 200 scholars who have been working in four teams in order to provide comparative perspectives on the relationship between national identity formation and historial writing. A significant outcome of the project is that French and German school pupils have started using the same history textbook - an example of a trend across Europe for using the teaching of history to overcome mistrust and conflict between nations. It is hoped the discussion may explore how this new thinking may influence history teaching in the UK. FULL NOTES ON PROFESSOR BERGER'S TALK are under References in the Briefings and Reports section of the website. Click on 'Nationalism's Role in History Teaching'
Speaker: Professor Stefan Berger (Professor of Modern German and Comparative European History, Director of the Manchester Jean-Monnet Centre of Excellence at the University of Manchester. Director of project 'Representations of the Past: The Writing of National Histories in 19th and 20th C Europe)
Speech: (Professor Stefan Berger)
Location: Grimond Room, Portcullis House, Westminster, London