Interrupting History: Rethinking History Curriculum After ’The End of History’

Parkes (curriculum studies, U. of New Castle) explores the way that postmodern skepticism in the humanities and the idea that history has come to an end have created challenges and opportunities for teaching history. He focuses on the postwar period to the present, arguing that the idea of an end to history operates much differently in this period than it did in the 19th Century when first advanced by thinkers like Hegel, Marx or Nietzsche. He is less interested in writing a "history of the end of history" than offering a framework for developing history curricula and teaching, as well as evaluating claims that the end of history itself is an academic fad. He analyzes New Curriculum History and its emphasis on discourse analysis and deconstruction, as well as the problems that arise when counter-histories compete for attention. He ultimately advocates a historiographic and hermeneutic approach to working out a posthumous history pedagogy. Parkes' writing is clear, though the book is intended to be of the most interest to educators and historiographers. Annotation 穢2011 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)