What we know as history from below has long been considered a more democratic form of history-writing and research than forms of history that have counted, sometimes by default, as elite, and therefore by implication elitist. But history from below also has a tendency towards populism: an emphasis on authenticity, on voices uncontaminated by elite narratives, and a focus on the indigenous. Apart from its having a long-standing problem of finding sources to 'give voice' to the underrepresented, the question as to who can write about (and therefore represent) the people below, and a possible focus, in consequence, on themes of blood, soil, and the Volk.

This volume explores, over nine essays and an introductory thematic essay, these tensions and dichotomies. The purpose is to bring to the foreground a long-standing danger of celebrating voices from below, perhaps uncritically at times, and therefore also of a romanticisation of those voices.

Historical thinking has a politics that shapes its ends. While at least two generations of scholars have been guided into their working lives with this axiom as central to their profession, it is somewhat of a paradox that historiography is so often nowadays seen as a matter of intellectual choices operating outside the imperatives of quotidian politics, even if the higher realms of ideological inclinations or historiographical traditions can be seen to have played a role. The politics of historical thinking, if acknowledged at all, is seen to belong to the realms of nonprofessional ways of the instrumentalisation of the past.

This series seeks to centre the politics inherent in historical thinking, professional and non-professional, promoted by states, political organisations, 'nationalities' or interest groups, and to explore the links between political (re-)education, historiography and mobilisation or (sectarian?) identity formation. We hope to bring into focus the politics inherent inhistorical thinking, professional, public or amateur, across the world today.

Advisory Board:

Amar Baadj, Relizane University

Berber Bevernage, University of Ghent

Federico Finchelstein, New School for Social Research, New York

Kavita Philip, University of British Columbia

Dhruv Raina, Jawaharlal Nehru University

Indra Sengupta, German Historical Institute, London

Jakob Tanner, University of Zurich