On Keith Jenkins

Abstract

There are three parts to this narrative. In the first part I will explain what I think most historians believe about the nature of what they do by explaining what I was told was what ‘good’ historians do and think, and there is no mention of Keith Jenkins. I will then offer a narrative of how I think the conventional notion of ‘doing history’ was challenged by Keith Jenkins. I will then somewhat more briefly conclude in the third part with my evaluation of Keith's contribution to our understanding of that engagement with the past we refer to as history.

Keywords:

• Keith Jenkins
• ‘past reality’
• ‘historical truth’
• diegesis
• ‘rethinking history’
• ‘end of history’

Notes

^1. The historians who, it is all too well known, predated White are referenced in his classic text but obviously include Benedetto Croce and R. G. Collingwood. The literature is substantial. See for example Gallie (1964), Mink (2001), Munz (1997), White (1978, 1987, 1998, 2000), Ankersmit (1994, 2001, 2005), Jenkins (1999, 2003 [1991]), Jenkins and Munslow (2004) and Ricoeur (1984). More specifically on the universal structure of narrative and from which historians could usefully learn much that applies to their own literary endeavours see Chatman (1978), Jakobson (1960, 1971–1985), Propp (1958), Greimas (1992 [1985]), Todorov (1964), Mink (2001) and Ricoeur (1984). And, offering a sense of more recent analyses, see Munslow (2011) and Southgate (2011).

^2. See, for example, the organisation ‘History & Policy’, which, according to its website, ‘History & Policy works for better public policy through an understanding of history by connecting historians, policy makers and the media. We believe study of the past can offer important lessons for the 21st century. We are the only project in the UK providing access to an international network of more than 360 historians with a broad range of expertise. H&P offers a range of resources for historians, policy makers and journalists. These include policy papers and opinion pieces’. http://www.historyandpolicy.org/.