Why History?: Ethics and Postmodernity

Why History is an introduction to the issue of history and ethics. Designed to provoke discussion, the book asks whether a good knowledge and understanding of the past is a good thing to have and if so, why. In the context of postmodern times, Why History suggests that the goal of ''learning lessons from the past'' is actually learning lessons from stories written by historians and others. If the past as history has no foundation, can anything ethical be gained from history?
Why History presents liberating challenges to history and ethics, proposing that we have reached an emancipatory moment which is well beyond the ''end of history''.

Keith Jenkins is Reader in History at University College Chichester and author of Rethinking History (1991), On ’What is History?’ From Carr and Elton to Rorty and White (1995) and The Postmodern History Reader (1997).