Bauer's History

 As a PhD-student I came in contact with the writings of Lynn Hunt, whose writings actually helped me overcome some problems brought forth by the more post-modern perspectives. In short these perspectives sometimes highlight that we really can not know anything, since knowledge in itself is a social construct and a outcome of power relations. As a young researcher this was a rather depressing insight; since if all we ever produce is just social constructs then why is research worth it? The solution to this problem was presented in the writings of Lynn Hunt's book "History: Why it matters" which highlights that science can produce temporary truths. These truths can be seen as state of the art on what we can claim to know about the world right now, but that these truths are also subject to change. Therefore, we never make a claim that can last for centuries.  This is a conclusion that I have drawn in to my teaching and in the current course I teach on the history of childho...

One of the many perks with being a university teacher is that you get to read alot of various scientific literature. This semester I have been assigned to teach course about the history of childhood, which actually aligns rather well with my research interests on the history of families and migrant children. However, teaching also requires to read through the course literature and in this case a key-book was Colin Heywood's "a history of childhood".  As a standalone book it works rather well as an introduction to both the history of childhood and, in a wider sense, social constructionism. What I however have struggled with when incoorporating it to teaching is these three aspects: a) The structure which is divided thematically rather than chronologically  b) The books overestimation of the social; whilst also underestimating human evolution c) The approach where the past is presented as a one-way route to an enlighted, contemporary Europe or western world  Starting with m...