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The limits of historical knowledge

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 February 2003

JOHN ELLIOTT
JOHN ELLIOTT
Affiliation:
Oriel College, Oxford OX1 4EW, UK. E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

This paper sets out the limitations of knowledge from the past and the ways that knowledge can be used. The first part deals with the extent to which the past can be known and raises questions about the survival of evidence and also about the ways evidence is interpreted. The second part looks briefly at possible uses of the past and suggests, in particular, the importance of new interpretations challenging the received wisdom and thus giving societies new ways of looking at themselves and their histories.

Type
Research Article
Information
European Review , Volume 11 , Issue 1 , February 2003 , pp. 21 - 25
Copyright
© Academia Europaea 2003

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Footnotes

Presented at the Balzan Symposium on ‘The Two Cultures’, London, 13 May 2002.