Looking back – a pensive balance

ABSTRACT

This essay summarizes my work in theory of history, history didactics, historiography, and intercultural humanism. That work is put into the framework of historical culture in the Federal Republic of Germany and its reception examined. Within historical studies, reception has been subdued in Germany but much stronger in Brazil and East Asia. Up to today, the work has also had an effective impact in history didactics in Germany and abroad, however. The essay ends with a critical look at some new trends in the humanities.

KEYWORDS:

• Theory of history
• historical consciousness
• history didactics
• historical culture
• historiography

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. The outcomes of this project were two book series (‘Being Human: Caught in the Web of Cultures. Humanism in the Age of Globalization’, ed. by Jörn Rüsen, Chun-Chieh Huang, Oliver Kozlarek and Jürgen Straub, 20 vols; ‘Reflections on (In)Humanity’, edited by Sorin Antohi, Chun Chieh Huang and Jörn Rüsen, 8 vols). See Rüsen (2010, 2013a).

2. See the collection of comments and my response in Rüsen (2011).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jörn Rüsen

Jörn Rüsen is Senior Fellow at the Kulturwissenschaftliches Institut (Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities) at Essen; Professor emeritus at the University of Witten/Herdecke. He was Professor for Modern History with Special Respect to History Didactics at the Ruhr-University of Bochum; Professor for general history with special respect to theory of history at the University of Bielefeld; director of the Zif (center for interdisciplinary study) in Bielefeld; Professor for General History and Historical Culture at the University of Witten/Herdecke; President/director of the Kulturwissenschaftliches Institut (Institute for Advanced Study in Humanities) at Essen and head of the research project on ‘Humanism in the era of globalisation – an intercultural dialogue on humanity, culture, and values’ at the Kulturwissenschaftliches Institut (Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities) at Essen.