What is History For?

Contents: Humanities and therapeutic education --; History for its own sake --; The Holy Grail of truth --; 'For its own sake'? --; Straw men? --; Professed purposes --; Transferable skills --; 'Cultivation' --; Myth-breaking --; Theological confirmations and questionings --; Obligations to the dead --; Hidden agendas --; Political puppertry: the case of Germany --; Justifying the status quo --; Discipline and power --; The gender of history --; Life and needs in postmodernity --; Postmodernity --; Centres and certainties --; Order --; Direction --; Problems of identity: selfhood and others --; History in postmodernity: future prospects --; Closure and openness --; Self, narrativity and meaning: personal and national identities --; Historic moments and empowerment: making choices --; Colonising the future: towards a better world --; Histories for postmodernity -- some aspirations --; Realism, pessimism, hope --; History and myth again --; The labyrinth of language --; Transferable qualities --; Histories for postmodernity -- some examples --; Robert A. Rosenstone and Japan --; Peter Novick and the Holocaust --; Sven Lindqvist and bombing --; Tzvetan Todorov and hope.