THE PAST AND THE PRESENT IN HISTORICAL WRITING.

A consideration of the relationship between contemporary preoccupations and developments in historical writing. Contemporary preoccupations provide an uncertain foundation for developments in historical writing. They may provide fresh insights to the past, but they may be powerful enough to countervail the beneficial influences of improved techniques and sources. A historian may be able to reduce the influence of his contemporary interests on his approach to the past by comparing the periods and subjects neglected by successive generations of historians concerned with the same period of the past. In this way, he may acquire a clearer awareness of the manner in which historical judgements do improve in successive generations.