History is one of the weapons most fiercely wielded in ideological warfare. Its use in legitimizing nationalism and totalitarianism, or forms of exclusion promoted by radical and violent political experiments, explains why it is often considered a “battlefield”, as Enzo Traverso has rightly called it. Whereas according to the old cliché, “history is written by the victors”, it seems that the successful appropriation of history is a prerequisite to political victory.
Against all odds, the battlefield that was the twentieth century also gave rise to some of the most rigorous historiographical techniques humanity has ever developed. Historians developed methods that invite us to conceive of the past in global terms, joining together different disciplines (economic, social and cultural history), and integrating a broad range of actors that for too long had been ignored: women, peasants, workers, colonized people, etc. Thanks to these advances, contemporary history has expanded its horizons and conceptual tools, becoming the common heritage of free citizens who own their own past, which they use to hone their critical thinking skills. This is how history ceases to be “written by the victors”, and instead becomes a community-wide possession in free and open societies.
The twenty-first century, as with the past, has begun amid great uncertainties. Political instability on the international stage, the different faces of crisis (economic, demographic, environmental, health), the emergence of new global actors, the ceaseless stream of technological revolutions – it is all one challenge after another for the tools we use to make sense of the world. And, once more, it is increasingly evident that history will continue to be used as an ideological weapon, as a source of identity, and, as such, as a weapon of exclusion against political foes.
The members of MEDhis Research Platform are professional practitioners of historical and philological disciplines. What’s more, we work with fields that are particularly prone to ideological dispute: the Middle Ages, Jewish and Muslim history, and the relationship between Spain and the Andalusi past. We are therefore committed to the social and political dimension of our work, which is especially relevant in the current context. For us, history continues to be an essential tool of critical thinking. Our work consists in producing rational knowledge about past human societies, in order to help today’s societies gain critical access to their own history.