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oa Vervlochten geschiedenis - Hoe histoire croisée de natiestaat bedwingt
- Amsterdam University Press
- Source: Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis, Volume 125, Issue 1, Feb 2012, p. 96 - 109
Abstract
The approaches of historical comparison and research into cultural transfers have ineffectively set out to distance historical research from the nation state. This analysis of histoire croisée against the background of historical comparison and cultural transfer concludes that this new approach adds to the historical arsenal by positioning reflexivity at its heart. By institutionalizing the reflexive turn it calls attention to mutual perception in human relationships, to the balance of power in these relations, and to the relative importance of different spatial frames for the historical actors in question. Histoire croisée bundles existing historical approaches which stress the perspective of the contemporaries, interwoven human relations, and their balances of power and self-reflexivity. It regards the nation state as just one of several interwoven frames, the importance of which to historical actors has to be explored. Thus histoire croisée does not try to replace the national framework, but turns it into a useful question for future research.