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The Combing of History

How is historical knowledge produced? And how do silence and forgetting figure in the knowledge we call history? Taking us through time and across the globe, David William Cohen’s exploration of these questions exposes the circumstantial nature of history. His investigation uncovers the conventions and paradigms that govern historical knowledge and historical texts and reveals the economic, social, and political forces at play in the production of history.

Drawing from a wide range of examples, including African legal proceedings, German and American museum exhibits, Native American commemorations, public and academic debates, and scholarly research, David William Cohen explores the "walls and passageways" between academic and non-academic productions of history.

290 pages | 6 halftones | 6 x 9 | © 1994

African Studies

Anthropology: Cultural and Social Anthropology

History: General History

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Preface
1. The Production of History
2. Namuluta v. Kazibwe
3. The Economy of Debate
4. Silences of the Living, Orations of the Dead
5. Pim’s Doorway
6. Ditmar’s Revenge
7. Tisdale Divide
8. The Constitution of Expertise
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index

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