Beyond the canon : history for the twenty-first century

Governments throughout the Western world are increasingly concerned about national identity and the transmission of historical knowledge. Beyond the Canon tackles these issues and their possible effects for historical culture in a globalizing and postcolonial world. The editors have tied the various contributions together in a fascinating and highly relevant volume about the philosophical grounding of (de-)canonization processes and its consequences for the construction of narratives and the teaching of history in multicultural class rooms and museums. The authors reconfigure the different historical narratives and moral perspectives generated in the sometimes difficult processes of coming to terms with the pasts of Germany, South Africa and postcolonial Western nations. What happens when foundational concepts, such as the Enlightenment, the nation or gender, are subjected to critique and revision? Introducing English-speaking readers to important international scholars whose previous work has been in other languages, this volume is a valuable contribution to studies in International History.