Columbia University Press
On the Judgment of History
This book examines the idea that History will be the judge of our actions (finally determining what is the good and the true), arguing instead that there is always an implicit politics at work. Exploring the different politics of the Nuremberg Tribunal, the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and the movements in the US for reparations for slavery, Scott asks what it might mean not to leave judgment to History but instead to call history to account.
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Overview
This book examines the idea that History will be the judge of our actions (finally determining what is the good and the true), arguing instead that there is always an implicit politics at work. Exploring the different politics of the Nuremberg Tribunal, the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and the movements in the US for reparations for slavery, Scott asks what it might mean not to leave judgment to History but instead to call history to account.
Joan Wallach Scott is Professor Emerita in the School of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. A specialist in modern French history and the history of feminism, she perhaps is best known for her 1986 article, “Gender: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis.” Among her many books are The Politics of the Veil (2007); Sex and Secularism (2017);and Knowledge, Power, and Academic Freedom (2019).
The Washington History Seminar is co-chaired by Eric Arnesen (George Washington University and the National History Center) and Christian Ostermann (Woodrow Wilson Center) and is organized jointly by the National History Center of the American Historical Association and the Woodrow Wilson Center's History and Public Policy Program. It meets weekly during the academic year. The seminar thanks its anonymous individual donors and institutional partners (the George Washington University History Department and the Lepage Center for History in the Public Interest) for their continued support.
Moderators
Christian F. Ostermann
Woodrow Wilson Center
Eric Arnesen
Professor of History, The George Washington University. Director, National History Center of the American Historical Association.
Panelists
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History and Public Policy Program
The History and Public Policy Program makes public the primary source record of 20th and 21st century international history from repositories around the world, facilitates scholarship based on those records, and uses these materials to provide context for classroom, public, and policy debates on global affairs. Read more
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