It is a time of anger, depression, and grief. And the dominant discourse keeps hammering home the idea of a world in decline. Political impotence, economic disillusionment, and a state of permanent violence would be our horizon, almost our destiny. Yet history is coming back. Most often tragically, as with the attacks that shed blood and tears in Paris and Brussels. But over the din of weapons, it also lets us hear other possibilities, like the worldwide struggle to stop the destruction of the planet, from global warming to aberrant “development” projects. And history, as the science of the past, is also making a comeback on the stage of ideas. What new forms does it take? That of global history, or of the national novel? A conversation that aims to explore and invent a new never-ending story.
Distribution
Meeting conceived and hosted by Nicolas Truong, in charge of the Ideas-Debates section of Le Monde With Patrick Boucheron, historian