Resumen de Educar el pasado: perspectivas para una investigación comparada sobre la «Historia profunda» y «universal»
- español
En el presente artículo se ilustra la tendencia reciente que caracteriza la historiografía contemporánea: el retorno a una concepción universal de la historia. El universalismo se traduce principalmente en una visión global y ‘profunda’ del pasado. Este enfoque se valora aquí mediante la observación comparativa de algunos trabajos recientes que han provocado un animado debate en la comunidad académica. Cabe recordar que este enfoque no es nuevo, sino que se trata más bien de un retorno. Las obras históricas más importantes compiladas desde la Edad Media hasta el nacimiento de la Edad Moderna han considerado la historia en su conjunto. La reducción de los arcos temporales analizados, aunque respondiera a necesidades contingentes, provocó cortocircuitos culturales que impidieron captar los desarrollos históricos estudiados. En este artículo, trataré de poner en diálogo el antiguo universalismo con el universalismo moderno, subrayando el valor pedagógico de esta forma de escribir la historia y la centralidad de las instituciones educativas en su consolidación y transmisión.
- English
This article takes into account the recent trend of historiography towards a return to a universal conception of history. This universalism consists mainly in a global and profound vision of the past. Such an approach is assessed here through the comparative observation of some recent works that have provoked a lively debate in the academic community. This orientation, however, is far from new; it is rather a return. The most important historical works produced from the Middle Ages to the eve of modernity, in fact, have considered human history as a whole. The reduction of the time frames in scholarly works analysed here, although responding to contingent and concrete needs, according to some intellectuals caused cultural ‘short circuits’ that prevented us from grasping the same historical events that historians were trying to understand and guide. In this article, I will try to put ancient universalism into dialogue with modern universalism, underlining the pedagogical value of this way of writing history and the centrality of educational institutions in consolidating and transmitting it. The historiographical works considered here do not necessarily exhaust the whole panorama of publications on this theme. In my opinion, however, they are the most representative and innovative of this new and at the same time ancient trend. What they have in common is the renewed sensitivity of the scientific community towards a multidisciplinary and inclusive approach, which uses the recent acquisitions of a wide range of sciences, including geology, anthropology, archaeology, physics, for the study of human history.
