Historisk Tidskrift. Utgiven av Svenska historiska föreningen
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Historisk tidskrift 123:2 • 2003

Innehåll (Contents) 2003:2

Uppsatser (Articles)

Finns det minimikrav och optimumnormer också när det gäller den historiska syntesen?

Lars Magnusson

Fulltext (pdf)

Summary

Are there Minimum Requirements and Optimum Norms also for Historical Synthesis?

Rolf Torstendahl used the concepts of ”minimum requirements” and ”optimum norms” in an essay from 1981 to describe the main ideas of Swedish historigraphical development during the twentieth century, particularly to revise the accepted view of the Weibullian school of thought. The purpose of this essay was to try to discuss the need for minimum requirements and optimum norms for historical syntheses. Just a few decades ago, it was considered detrimental to one’s career and unworthy of a serious academic historian to write synthetic histories – loosely defined as an attempt to write an epical history or give an integrated or holistic description of a larger historical transition. But much has happened since then and the market is now replete with historical syntheses.

This essay argues the need of specifying which criteria are to be used with historical syntheses. In addition to prevailing minimum requirements for criticism of sources, it is argued that explanatory and historical syntheses also need the social sciences. The optimum norms that should be applied must be anchored in modern social science theory. Otherwise, the way is paved for relativism of the type represented by certain currents in post-modern historical descriptions.