Participants will be asked to read portions of On Historical Distance (Yale University Press, 2013). Readings are password protected. Password will be provided after registering for the event.
For centuries, historians have looked to the idea of historical distance as a path to objectivity, elevating distance and detachment as central tools of historical thought. The idea acquires greater value, however, when distance is reconceived in relation to the range of purposes that shape all forms of representation. The result is a more flexible form of understanding that has important implications not only for historical studies but also for literature, art history, and ethics.
Mark Salber Phillips is Professor of History with a cross appointment in the Institute for Comparative Studies in Literature, Art, and Culture at Carleton University. He is the author of many books, including Society and Sentiment: Genres of Historical Writing in Britain, 1740-1820 (2000) and On Historical Distance (2013), awarded the 2014 Wallace K Ferguson Prize given by the Canadian Historical Association. His current research includes philosophy of history and historiography, intellectual history, and European historical thought in the Renaissance, Enlightenment, and the late twentieth century.
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