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Peter N. Stearns, Theorizing Historical Consciousness, Journal of American History, Volume 93, Issue 2, September 2006, Pages 593–594, https://doi.org/10.2307/4486363
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This is a stimulating collection of essays, by distinguished scholars, on the nature of learning of historical consciousness. Peter Seixas, as editor, construes historical consciousness broadly, and the essays range from probes of historical or collective memory to the more elusive nature of historical thinking. Contributors judge that some historical consciousness is almost inevitable, but that it varies greatly and (in the main) that to be useful it has to go well beyond storytelling or “commonsense.”
Authors and essays stem from a variety of national settings. Canada, and especially Quebec, is strongly represented, but there are essays from or about the United Kingdom, Australia, Germany, and Russia.
Using the standard measures for an essay collection, the results for this work are positive. The average quality of the essays is high, and the main quibble focuses on three essays that seem too brief to sustain the claims involved. All the pieces exhibit extensive and intelligent reading, and the book serves as an introduction and update to a considerable and varied literature—in history, but also in psychology, philosophy, and other disciplines. The authors talk with each other. Jörn RÜsen, Kent Den Heyer, and Roger Simon debate directly, but more useful are the specific comments on other authors, for example Peter Lee on RÜsen. Seixas's editing adds to the coherence. His introduction sketches the major issues. Each of the main parts has its own introductory orientation, a helpful device.
