Writing Beyond Time: The Durability of Historical Texts

Abstract

When we think in terms of the durability of historical texts, some works instantly come to mind: Herodotus's, Thucydides's, and Polybius's war narratives, Plutarch's comparative biographies, Eusebius's ecclesiastical history, Augustine's City of God, Jean Froissart's chronicles, Francesco Guicciardini's history of Florence, Edward Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Jules Michelet's History of France, Leopold von Ranke's History of the Reformation, Jacob Burckhardt's The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy, Johan Huizinga's The Waning of the Middle Ages, Fernand Braudel's Mediterranean, and Edward Thompson's The Making of the English Working Class, among others. Historians instantly perceive them as durable texts, part of a canon of history and historiography. Surrounded as we are by the exaltation of innovation over tradition, and assuming the challenging concept of “writing as historical practice” proposed by the editor of this issue, In this article I examine the conditions that might be considered necessary for historical writing to achieve durability, propose what conditions of creation and reception enabled this longevity, justify why these and other historical texts have the potential for durability, and discuss what practical lessons we might obtain from this inquiry. I begin by making some distinctions among the three related concepts of durability, the classic, and the canon, and try to establish the specific conditions of the durability of historical texts, focusing on the effect of contemporaneity and the connections between the concepts of durability and the practical past.

Reconciling the Republic of South Moluccas Movement with Indonesia Nation: A Christian perspective

“…Forgiveness is a means for coping with the historical wounds and a way of creating a new history for the present and the future. In understanding the function of the past to the present, Jaume Aurell (2018: 51) stated:We also have to establish a firm balance between the past and the present, the enduring and the transient, the essence of the texts created in the past and the disposition of today's readers, since durable texts “possess intrinsic qualities that endure, but possess also an openness to accommodation which keeps them alive under endlessly varying dispositions,” as Frank Kermode suggests. Nevertheless, we should also reflect on what is permanent in history, since we would otherwise be in danger of falling into the trap of devaluating what is really new in history as opposed to an adjustment or a result of the evolution of a paradigm, to borrow Thomas Kuhn's concept.…”

The singular touchstone: the enduring relevance of The Evolution of Management Thought

“…A “classic” in historical writing is a work that defines or redefines a field of research (Aurell, 2018), and few history books earn this enduring honor (Aurell, 2021). The term “classic” has its roots in ancient Roman times when it referred to the social status of continuing excellence.…”