Ken Dewar, emeritus historian from Mount. St. Vincent in Halifax, does a tour d'horizon on
the state of history today in the current
Literary Review of Canada, and concludes, y'know, it ain't that bad.
My question, then—is history in flower or is it in crisis?—poses a false dichotomy. If, instead, we accustom ourselves to thinking about the multiplicity of historiographic representations, we will become more aware of the distinctive qualities of the books we read (or write), and perhaps become better able to reflect on their relationship to their various audiences.